Wisdom Written in the Blood
by HistorianoftheKais
Summary: Naruto inherited many things from the Uzumaki clan. However, the Namikaze Clan also had something special for Naruto. While not a major ninja clan, a dangerous power was sleeping in the Namikaze. The most fearsome power a ninja can have is not raw chakra, a powerful physique, superhuman senses, or supposedly unbeatable jutsus. It is knowledge and the wisdom to use it.
1. Chapter 1

As the sun slowly set over Konoha, the sounds of crying could be heard coming from an apartment in the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex. These cries were coming from the top most floor of the complex which currently only had one occupant on the floor. Because no one else was on the floor, the cry went unheard. Inside the apartment, this lonely soul could be found curled into a ball on his bed sobbing into his pillow.

Seven year old Naruto Uzumaki cried to himself and mumbled out in emotional pain. "Why! Why won't anyone play with me? What did I do to deserve not having a mommy and daddy of my own?" He continued to sob and said, "Why do the other orphans get to know who their parents were and I don't?" Most of the other orphans were brutal in their teasing of Naruto since they all knew who their parents were even if it was just by their names. Everyone in the complex knew that they all had to have had at least one shinobi parent to be here. Otherwise, they would be at the other orphanage in Konoha. However, all Naruto knew was that his parents were 'shinobi who died fighting the Kyuubi'. He had no names, photos, or mementos of his parents to his name.

To the kids at the shinobi orphanage, this meant that Naruto was at the absolute bottom of social totem pole. The orphan kids were generally slightly outcast among the kids at the pre-Academy school. However, Naruto was an outcast from the outcasts. Most of the children of civilian parents had been told to avoid Naruto because he was bad news. The fact that Naruto was being avoided was quickly caught on by the other kids like a head cold in a school and more kids joined in on avoiding Naruto. The other shinobi orphans started to shun Naruto as well instead of offering him support. After all, he was bad news which might explain why he had no names for his parents.

Growing up as an orphan in an orphanage could never be described as easy or pleasant. There were simply too many children for the caretakers at the orphanage to possibly give every child the comfort, closeness, and attention that a child would receive from a parent. The caretakers insured that all of the children got good meals, clean clothes, regular baths, expected education, and taught some discipline. But, it was all so institutional and cold with none of the special moments that make childhood so enjoyable and carefree for children with caring parents. Most the orphans bonded with each other as brothers and sisters. Naruto had tried to form such bonds, but he had been relegated to the bottom of the heap before being kicked out of the group by the other orphans.

Emotions and desires are powerful things that can drive and motivate people to do things others would think unlikely or even impossible. Somethings these drives and goals are beneficial to the desirer and to others. Goals and drives can also be dangerous to people both for the person wanting the goal and to others who can be hurt by it. More often than not, the goals and drives fueled by emotions and desires run a massive spectrum of results between the two extremes. For Naruto, his emotions and desires were unknowingly preparing a mixed blessing for him.

As Naruto continued to cry out for friends he never had and parents he never knew, a battle was being fought in his body. This wasn't a battle between the Kyuubi and the seal imprisoning him. The war was between Naruto's body and a power that had been sleeping within his paternal line for generations and was finally ready to be revealed. Naruto's subconscious called to this power demanding it awaken as it would give Naruto what he desired. Naruto's body fought back as it tried to suppress the power since it wasn't ready to handle it just yet. A headache came over Naruto increasing his pain and driving him to more fervently wish for his unknown parents to make it all better.

Something finally gave in Naruto and his chakra started to flare. A second later, the young boy let out a bellowing blood curdling scream. The scream continued until Naruto fell back in a seizure. From there, Naruto continued to let out cries of agony as he had a seizure on his bed.

The door to Naruto's apartment was broken down less than a minute after Naruto's chakra flared. Standing in the door frame was the grizzled commander of the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex who had been a Chunin in the Second Shinobi War before losing half of his right leg. The commander walked into Naruto's apartment with a slight limp from his prosthetic leg and looked around for the source of the chakra spike. He relaxed slightly upon seeing no sign of enemy ninjas. One of the reasons shinobi orphans were kept separate from civilian orphans was the chance of enemy ninjas attacking the kids in revenge against their parents.

Once he spotted Naruto, the commander put his kunai away and reached for his radio. He turned it on and said, "Get the hospital on the line Daichi and tell them to send someone to pick up one of the kids for an emergency visit. It's the Uzumaki boy so also send a message to the Hokage." The commander then proceeded to shove anything out of the way that Naruto might accidentally hit while in his seizure.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in a patient room in Konoha's Hospital looking down at Naruto Uzumaki who was resting in a medically induced slumber with several IVs pumping nutrients, water, and medicine into him. Instead of a pillow, Naruto's head was resting on cloth covered ice packs. Hiruzen never liked seeing children in hospitals as it reminded him too much of the horror stories he father used to tell him of the times before the shinobi village system. It also brought back memories of the after effects of too many terrible battles that had been fought in his life. The Sandaime never liked it when he passed the pediatric ward whenever he had to visit the hospital. That Naruto was in the pediatric ward made things even worse for Hiruzen. He was sure that he could only feel worse if it was infant Konohamaru in Naruto's place.

How could this have happened to Naruto? Hiruzen wondered if Naruto's condition had been caused by the Kyuubi, but that didn't make much sense to the Sandaime. After all, Naruto had been exposed to the Kyuubi's chakra for 10 months before even being born, he had the Uzumaki vitality, and the strongest seal to hold back tailed beast. Perhaps it was an assassination attempt by another village via poison? But, none of the other orphans had been brought in with similar symptoms so that was a low probability.

The Sandaime was pulled from his musings when he heard the sound of the door opening. Hiruzen turned to see Dr. Ryuken Ishida walk into the room. Dr. Ishida bowed his head and said, "Lord Hokage, the test results have come back. Patient Uzumaki is past the critical state of his condition and it should be safe to allow him to wake up sometime tomorrow. Physically, it looks like he will make a full recovery within the week. However, there are some uncertainties given how unique this situation is and the unknowns we're dealing with in his case."

Hiruzen turned to focus on the white haired medical ninja and quickly spoke in a firm voice. "What has happened with Naruto?"

Dr. Ishida looked down at his notes for a brief second and then regained eye contact with Hiruzen. The doctor then said, "Patient Uzumaki has apparently activated an undocumented kekkei genkai that seems to be centered around his brain. We think that this kekkei genkai was somehow activated too early and the stress of activating it almost killed him."

There was shock and horror on the Hokage's face. The Uzumaki and the Namikaze clans didn't have a kekkei genkai. True, the Uzumakis had been known for their unusually large chakra reserves and vitality. But, those traits never showed the customary medical signatures of a kekkei genkai. As for the Namikaze, they had been a clan of merchants. Minato's father had been the first shinobi from the family and his mother had been the child of an actress and an unknown shinobi from Konoha. The only reason Hiruzen had known that little fact was the fact that he was there when Minato's mother requested permission to join Konoha to become a ninja from the Nidaime and her background had been part of the screening process. Hell, Hiruzen had only kept an eye on Minato's mother because the Nidaime had been oddly interested in her career. The Nidaime's interest in Mimi had led to the Sandaime's decision to put her son on Jiraiya's team when Minato was a genin.

A second later the shock and horror were no longer visible on Hiruzen's face. He then calmly said, "What can you tell me about this kekkei genkai doctor and why did it almost kill Naruto?"

Dr. Ishida glanced at Naruto and started to explain what he knew. "I cannot tell you too much about this bloodline as we don't have any records of it in the hospital at all. All the other doctors and I have is our observations from treating Naruto through the night yesterday. The first thing that I can tell you is that this kekkei genkai is not a dojutsu of any sort. That was the first thing we started checking when the patient's eyes started to change. Except for the now blue within blue coloration of the eyes, his eyes are perfectly normal. One of the doctors thinks that this coloration is merely a biological sign that the kekkei genkai is active similar to the bulging veins the Hyuga have when the Byakugan is in an active state. I think it's a little premature to state that with certainty, but I think that Dr. Kurosaki is correct on that matter."

The good doctor was able to hide his distaste at agreeing with his annoying goofball peer as he continued his explanation. "As I said earlier, this kekkei genkai seems to be centered around the patient's brain. Two unknown small growths have appeared where his brain connects to the spinal column. These growths, which appear to be additional brain mass, grew at an astonishing rate from apparently nothing to their current size in a matter of hours. We were concerned about these growths, but they've stopped expanding and are definitely tied into the rest of the patient's brain. The portions of the brain associated with memory and critical thinking have undergone extensive development reaching a state of development more like an older teenager's than a seven year old child. His brain activity has also skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. The closest I've ever seen to this level of brain activity was when an Uchiha allowed us to observe him while he was copying several jutsus and even then there was only a fraction of the activity we're now observing. A significant portion of that brain activity is in the new additions to the patient's brain."

"All of this growth and development in the patient's brain was producing a large amount of pressure and dangerous amounts of heat. I'll be honest, we almost had to do a Decompressive Craniectomy to prevent brain damage. Thankfully, our little patient inherited his family's vitality and we never had to reach the point of prepping for surgery. The massive developments in the patient's brain have slowed down and it looks like it will stop soon. We should be able to remove the ice packs in an hour or so. Uzumaki will probably have a massive migraine, but that is one of the reasons we're keeping him sedated."

"The rapid brain development is why my fellow doctors and I think that this kekkei genkai was somehow triggered too soon. X-rays taken of the patient's skull reveal indentations that perfectly protect these new brain lobes. We think that whatever this bloodline does, it is supposed to activate once the bearer has had the chance to slowly grow these new lobes. Based on other parts of the brain that have rapidly developed, it's thought that this is supposed to occur in the bearer's mid to late teens. However, we don't have enough information to say for sure sir."

Hiruzen nodded his head as he finished processing what the doctor had told him. Dr. Ishida then left to continue his rounds after giving Hiruzen a respectful nod. The Sandaime let his mask fall revealing all of worry and concern show on his face. None of this should have happened. Minato should be reigning as Hokage instead of him and Naruto should be growing up happily with his parents, maybe have a younger sibling to look after, and at least a dozen cousins from the Namikaze side of his family. This was not the life that the friendly, but unfortunately lonely boy resting in front of him should have had. If only that damn unknown ninja hadn't succeeded in releasing the Kyuubi.

The Hokage had known for years that someone had killed his beloved wife and the guards who had been protecting Kushina when she gave birth to Naruto. Examinations of their corpses had made that perfectly clear. Unfortunately, the identity of this enemy was impossible to determine as none of those who had been killed in the birthing chamber had caught a glimpse of their killer while Minato's and Kushina's brains had been too damaged by the Kyuubi's chakra and the Shinigami's energy for the Yamanakas to delve into their memories. Many of the ninjas who had been on the front lines holding back the Kyuubi thought that the Uchiha Clan had something do with the attack since no Uchihas showed up for the defense and several respectable ninjas had seen the Sharingan on the Kyuubi's eyes.

Supposition on that matter was pointless in Hiruzen's mind since he didn't have enough hard evidence one way or another to really act. Not that such actions would help poor little Naruto. The poor boy had lost his parents and his father's birth clan who had been wiped out that night by a stray attack from the Kyuubi. Hiruzen dearly wished he could help Naruto more, but there was only so much he could do. Having one of his kids raise Naruto would just put a massive target on the boy's back. If Jiraiya took an active role in Naruto's life it would also paint a target on his back as well as weaken both Konoha and the Land of Fire's defenses by pulling Jiraiya from his spy rings. Kushina and Minato had both been the last surviving members of their old genin teams so no help from that traditional quarter for shinobi orphans. As for their surviving former genin students, none of them were ready to try and raise a child.

Leaving Naruto, or any orphan for that matter, in the orphanage was never something Hiruzen liked to do. It was a wish of his that no child of Konoha had to grow up as an orphan. But as the old saying goes, wish in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one fills up first. At least with the orphanages in Konoha all of the village's orphans had their physical needs taken care of and they had a safe place to grow up into adults. Many orphans in other parts of the Land of Fire would dream of having it so good and the situation in other countries was even worse.

With a sigh, Hiruzen got up and started to head to the door. He turned to give one last look at the sleeping Naruto and whispered, "Try to have pleasant dreams Naruto. I know you'll make it through this and things will get better."

* * *

A few days later, Inoichi was standing in the Hokage's office having been summoned by Hiruzen. The Jonin bowed his head in greetings and then firmly said, "Sir, what mission do you need me to preform?"

Hiruzen put his pipe down and folded his hands together on his desk. He then looked at his subordinate and said, "I will not lie to you Yamanaka. The mission I need you to preform is extremely risky and there are many unknown variables. However, it is potentially vital to the safety of Konoha that this mission succeed. This mission will also require a good deal of discretion even though this mission is just in the village. It already involves several pieces of knowledge that I have deemed to be kept secret for Konoha's good. Is that understood?"

Inoichi gave a firm nod of his head and replied, "It is sir.

The Hokage then explained the background of the mission. "Five days ago, Naruto Uzumaki developed a completely unknown kekkei genkai that appears to be focused around his brain in some way. What this bloodline's abilities are we haven't been able to determine. It apparently activated too early and nearly killed the boy. Naruto woke up two days ago. However, we haven't been able to talk to him as every time he is woken up he starts either screaming in horror or jabbering incomprehensibly. The doctors have determined that Naruto's mind is still processing a tremendous amount of information of some sort. We're currently keeping the boy sedated to try and let his mind sort through whatever it is that it's trying to process."

Hiruzen's voice became harder as he continued. "However, this situation has gone on long enough. Naruto may be a child, but he is also the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and cannot be allowed to remain without control of his mental faculties. There is just too great of a risk of the demon finding a way to use Naruto's condition to escape and we have no one else who is nearly as capable of keeping the Kyuubi safely sealed within themselves as Naruto. Your mission Inoichi is to enter Naruto's mind, determine what is going wrong, and use whatever means you need to in order to restore Naruto's senses."

A sigh escaped Hiruzen's lips and was the only outward sign of the pain the old leader was in. He then added. "By whatever means does mean whatever you need to do Inoichi. While I want as little harm or change done to Naruto as possible, this mission must succeed. If you must, erase Naruto's memory and rebuild his personality. He's a young child and any amnesia you might need to cause can be explained away by his illness."

Both men were upset about what lengths this mission might have to go to in order to succeed and Inoichi's disgust was not nearly as well masked as Hiruzen's. Having to rewrite a person's sense of self was not an easy or a pleasant task. Having to do such a thing to a child made the already vile act especially revolting. However, having an insane jinchuuriki or even having the Kyuubi escape was something too terrible to think about. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few in this situation and if things came to it, both men would just have to learn how to live with their actions.

It took Inoichi a few seconds to collect himself and then he spoke. "I understand and accept the mission Hokage. I shall see that the mission is a success even if I hope I do not need to use every means at my disposal to do so." He then received some paperwork necessary for him to locate Naruto and get into the protected room he was in. Inoichi then bowed again and left the Hokage in his office.

The jonin left the Hokage Tower and started to walk towards the part of the hospital Naruto was in. Most of the hospital was in one central and defensible location, but there were several wings that were set up in separate locations for various reasons. The wing Inoichi was heading towards was the isolation and quarantine wing which was naturally enough the farthest wing of the hospital away from residential or commercial areas of the village. Inoichi could have gotten to the I&Q Wing in about ten minutes if he took to the roofs like many ninjas like to do. However, Inoichi wanted to take a good look at the village and remind himself why he had to defend it if the worse scenario should happen on his mission.

A half hour after leaving the Hokage Tower, Inoichi arrived at the I&Q Wing of the hospital. There was a security guard at the desk who Inoichi had to show the paperwork that allowed him entrance into the wing. Once the guard verified Inoichi's documents, he buzzed for an orderly to show the jonin around. The orderly soon showed up and led the ninja into the main hallway of the wing.

Once inside the hallway Inoichi spoke, "How is the Uzumaki kid doing?"

The orderly replied, "Good as long as he's sedated. He still screaming or jabbering whenever we let him wake up. However, it seems like both of those slowly lessening in severity so he might be working through them on his own. Don't quote me on that though as it's not my field of expertise. Seems a shame for the kid to be in here. Given the boy's unique status it makes sense from a security point of view to place him here, but we're not set up properly to handle neurological issues."

They then stopped at the door to the room Naruto was being kept in and the orderly unlocked the door so Inoichi could go in. It was a spartan room with only the bed Naruto was on and a few IV drips that were going into him. The emptiness of the room made Naruto seem so weak and vulnerable. Inoichi felt a tug at his heartstrings as he briefly replaced Naruto's image with that of Ino for a brief second. Inoichi took a second to close his eyes and reminded himself that he could complete his mission by helping Naruto get through whatever was causing him to be in this situation. He then walked to the head of Naruto's bed and placed his hand on the boy's forehead.

* * *

Inoichi had seen a lot of different things walking in many different peoples' minds. Everyone's mindscape was different and reflected many things about a person. However, Inoichi had never found himself in a mindscape that was like a hurricane made out of bubbles. The mind walker was nearly swept away by the various jumbled memories that were assaulting him with the full furry of a storm. Each bubble that hit Inoichi proceeded to roll over him as they continued to go where the storm directed them. As the bubbles passed by his face, the jonin was able to catch glimpses of what was inside the bubbles and was shocked at what he saw.

Each bubble was a memory like Inoichi expected, but they weren't Naruto's memories. Inoichi knew that because he recognized a few scenes in the memories from his own childhood. These memories were Minato Namikaze's memories as impossible as it seemed to the Yamanaka ninja. The shock and surprise of this fact caused Inoichi to lose his proverbial footing and his mental self was shoved down the wave of memories. The memories from each bubble started to show earlier and earlier moments of Minato's life. Then there were two new waves that seemed to branch off of the wave of Minato's memories.

Inoichi was swept into one of the new waves and confronted by someone else's memories. Many of the memory bubbles showed images of Minato, but they were from a different viewpoint and not memories from Minato himself. Most of these memories seemed to be clustered together with a memory of whoever Inoichi was observing holding Minato. Once there were no more memories of Minato, the wave of memories smoothed out showing things in the smooth, if rushed manner that Minato's memories had been displayed. A few more glances at the memories revealed that these memories were from Minato's father.

The memory front came to an abrupt end with a hazy memory of Naruto's grandfather's birth. Inoichi found himself outside of the memory storm even though it still raged around him. To his proverbial right was a long front of memories that seemed to stretch into the horizon. Based on what he had seen, the mind walker was willing to bet those memories came from Minato's mother and whoever down the line was passing down the kekkei genkai that Naruto had activated. To his left was a second front of memories. Fear gripped Inoichi since the vast majority of that front was an angry red color hinting that they could be the Kyuubi's memories. Several members of his clan had been rendered brain-dead from trying to use the clan jutsus on the demon and Inoichi was in no mood to join them.

Using his hard earned skill, Inoichi willed himself above the storm of memories making his mental body rise about the storm. Once Inoichi reached the ceiling of the mindscape he was able to get a complete look at the storm. It was like a hurricane with two fronts wrapping around each other. One front had seven different spurs coming off of one long front. Based on what Inoichi had seen from the spur he exited, those spurs represented the memories of the parents who didn't carry this kekkei genkai. On the other front there was a second that was the same color as the front he had been in and then there was the massive red spur that dominated that front. Inoichi was willing to bet that the second front came from Kushina and the Kyuubi. Where the two fronts met there seemed to be a small eye forming.

The eye of the memory hurricane had to be where Naruto's consciousness was located. The memory bubbles seemed to swirling extremely fast around the center. Inoichi took a second to collect himself and then sent his mental body flying towards the eye of the storm. As soon as Inoichi entered the outer wall of the eye he wished he hadn't Kushina and Minato's memories were jumbled together with Naruto's own memories. Furthermore, the memories from the night of the Kyuubi attack were very prominent. There were even a few memories from the Kyuubi itself in the mix of that night and the hatred radiating from those memories was terrifying.

Finally, Inoichi was able to force himself through to the center of the memory storm where Naruto was residing curled up in a little ball. Inoichi look around him and all he saw around Naruto were memories of his parents saying their last goodbyes and dying. The mind walker grabbed onto Naruto and then focused a great deal of energy into creating a barrier between the memories and the duo in the center of the storm.

Naruto slowly stopped crying as he felt the constant assault of memories stop. He then looked up to see Inoichi holding onto him. As Naruto's tears started to dry he looked at the man with a puffy, but confused face. "Who are you? You look very familiar, but older than someone I've seen a few bubbles? What is this place? How did we get here?"

There was a somewhat haunted look in Naruto's eyes that startled Inoichi. The boy's eyes had aged way too much for a seven year old. It was probably a side effect of being assaulted by all of these memories. Inoichi then said, "I'm a jonin on a mission for the Hokage. He was concerned about the state you were in and asked me to check on your wellbeing Naruto."

Naruto looked puzzled and said, "The old man?" Suddenly, the memory bubbles around the duo were filled with ones containing memories of Hiruzen. Many showed the Sandaime as an old man, but there was also a fair number showing Hiruzen as a younger man. A couple even showed Hiruzen as a teen or as a little kid. Naruto blinked his eyes and then muttered, "Why did he send you to check on me? Wait a minute, the Kyuubi?"

As soon as Naruto said that, all of the memory bubbles shifted to show the Kyuubi. Several of these bubbles were angry red and projected nearly overwhelming feelings of hate. Naruto started to shiver under the onslaught of the Kyuubi's memories and Inoichi wasn't far behind him on that score. Inoichi grabbed onto Naruto and held the boy tightly. He then firmly said, "Focus Naruto, Focus. You can change the memories we're seeing. Think about your parents, focus on how they felt when they found out you were coming." This was a bit of a gambit on Inoichi's part, but he figured that memories of happy parents would be the only thing strong enough to pull a child out of this situation.

Sure enough, the nearly overwhelming memories of the Kyuubi were forced aside by new memories of Minato and Kushina as they got things ready for Naruto's birth. Inoichi had to hold back a chuckle as he saw Minato using the Hiraishin jutsu to quickly go to various grocery stores to satisfy Kushina's cravings in several memory bubbles. There were also memories of the couple debating what they should call Naruto, who would get to train him the most, how old Naruto could be to start training, and all the other things expectant parents talked about. A sense of love and comfort radiated from these memories cheering up Naruto in a flash.

Inoichi smiled at the memories he was seeing. However, he didn't smile for long as he saw that the bubbles were starting to get closer to the duo. He turned to Naruto and said, "You've been given a great gift Naruto, but you can't let it get the better of you. We're in the eye of a memory storm, but the eye of a storm is supposed to be a peaceful place. Please focus on having the memories circle around you just like the clouds do for the eye of a storm. If you don't, the bad memories will overwhelm you again."

Naruto nodded his head and tried to will it to be so with a great deal of stress on his face. Inoichi kept on encouraging the boy and slowly the wall of memories moved away from the barrier that the mindwalker created. After a few minutes, Inoichi allowed the barrier he had created to slowly weaken. Soon the barrier was allowed to drop by the memories did not rush at the duo. At the same time, Naruto's face slowly lost the stress tension. The little boy started to cheer as the last bit of stress left him. "Yes! Did you see that Mr. Jonin? I got those memories to leave us alone!"

Inoichi nodded his head and replied, "I see that Naruto." On the inside, the ninja was deeply concerned about what he had learned about Naruto's Kekkei Genkai. The basic nature of the boy's bloodline had become clear to Inoichi although he wasn't sure on many points of the Kekkei Genkai given his limited experience with it. However, what he had seen filled the experience Jonin with a sense of worry and dread about what this would bloodline meant for the future and especially for the safety of Konoha.

* * *

Author's note: here's the start of a new story that has been brewing in the back of my brain for the past couple of months. For fans of Hero of Heaven, don't worry as I still have that muse cooperating with me. I just wanted to start a new Naruto fanfiction focused on the Naruto series. I will be introducing a few changes here and there to the Naruto setting. Don't worry, I've already written them down and I will introduce these changes in a logical manner. Naruto's treatment in this story wasn't one of those changes since in the manga Naruto was only ostracized by most people. Terrible treatment for anyone, but it is a lot better than the 'off the demon' raiding parties that have become so popular in fanon. The Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex is my own creation, but a logical one to explain out why a young orphan would be living 'alone' in their own apartment.

Also, please do not bug me with pairing suggestions. I've already figured out who Naruto will eventually be paired with and I'm keeping that a secret for now. I will let you know that Naruto's final pairing is probably not going to be his first pairing in this story or at least the first person he goes out with. With that said, sit back and enjoy this story as it unfolds.


	2. Chapter 2

Hiruzen's eyes were wide from shock as Inoichi gave him a report on his mission to bring Naruto back to normal. The old Hokage wasn't sure what he was expecting out of Naruto kekkei genkai, but this was the farthest thing from his mind. "Naruto has all of Minato and Kushina's memories plus the memories of seven generations of Minato's ancestors who carried this bloodline along with their partners' memories? In addition, Naruto has also apparently acquired the memories of the Kyuubi as well. Furthermore, you witnessed Naruto able to call up various memories at will and you're fairly certain that the boy will be able to get better at that with practice?"

Fear for the village's security started to well up in Hiruzen. As Hokage, Minato had access to almost every vital secret about Konoha and many of those secrets still played a major role in the defense of the village. Kushina also had access to many things when she was alive and had through knowledge of the village's barrier seals and early warning systems. While much older, Mimi Namikaze's and her husband Keigo Namikaze's memories would also provide a wealth of still useful information on Konoha ninjas. Finally, there was Mimi's unknown father who Hiruzen was willing to bet had to be a ninja of some importance for the Nidaime to take an interest in her career. Quite frankly, Naruto's bloodline was an information security nightmare.

In addition to everything that Naruto's ancestors knew, there was also the future concern over the knowledge and secrets Naruto would gain on his own as a shinobi. While the Land of Fire was very relaxed when it came to people choosing their careers, Naruto's future had been locked in on the day he was born. A known jinchuuriki didn't have any other options to earn a livelihood besides being a ninja or maybe joining the regular army. Very few civilians would be willing to consider hiring a jinchuuriki as an accountant or as a cook. Even if Naruto could somehow get a civilian job, he would almost certainly be killed by an enemy nation looking to add the Kyuubi to their arsenal. The only way for Naruto to avoid that fate was to have the training and weapons he would only be allowed access to as a registered ninja. Not really fair to the boy, but then no one intelligent ever said life was fair.

Inoichi nodded his head to confirm the Hokage's statement. "That is correct sir. Naruto doesn't seem to be able to access these memories consciously yet while awake. In my talk with the boy after he woke up he felt like he knew those memories existed, but he couldn't really recall the vast majority of them. He was able to remember a few of the memories he summoned while I was with him in his mind, but those were just ordinary home activities of his parents. I will say this though, the exposure to the various memories and the changes in Naruto's brain seem to have matured his personality a lot. Experience aside, Naruto talked more like a newly graduated genin then a seven year old kid."

"Thanks to his bloodline, Naruto is now aware of his parents' identity and his status as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Before leaving I made sure to impress upon Naruto the need to keep these facts and any other bits of information he might learn from his kekkei genkai a secret. However, I don't think that such reinforcement was necessary. Naruto knows that his parents' death and the attack on Konoha were caused by a secret being leaked somehow. He is painfully aware of the necessity to keep certain things quiet."

Hiruzen jotted down a few notes on a blank piece of paper and gave Inoichi a polite nod of the head. "Congratulations on successfully passing a potentially very dangerous mission Jonin Yamanaka. You also have my personal thanks for not having to go to such measures on your mission as was considered potentially necessary for the safety of the village. I will have your pay form filled out in a moment."

"However, given the information you've brought to me I will be assigning you to a somewhat regular mission involving Naruto. The boy will need to learn how to use his kekkei genkai and without someone who possesses this kekkei genkai to help him your clan seems the best suited to help his training. For security purposes, I want only you to help in this training. This mission will also have two separate additional objectives. The first objective will be to find out who this kekkei genkai originated with by determining everyone whose memories Naruto bares. The second objective is to gather information on the night of the Kyuubi attack. These additional objectives are to be completed as soon as possible, but not at the detriment of Naruto's ability to control his kekkei genkai. This mission will start next week unless Naruto needs more help controlling his abilities sooner."

Inoichi nodded his head and said, "Understood Lord Hokage." He then accepted the pay form that Hiruzen quickly filled out for him and left the Sandaime alone in his office.

As soon as the Sandaime was along, he pulled out his pipe and had a few comforting puffs before he mulled over Naruto's situation. How was he to minimize the threat that his kekkei genkai represented to the village and the Land of Fire while also using it to maximum effect? Briefly, Hiruzen thought about his former rival to be Hokage and what that traitor might have done. Danzo would no doubt have killed Naruto to prevent the possible security leak never stopping to consider how useful the kekkei genkai was or the disastrous effects Naruto's death would have. That fool had always been too short term in his thinking in addition to being power hungry. Danzo had been very useful though when it came to planning out a mission or handling black ops. Not that those abilities had saved Danzo when he tried to undermine both Hiruzen and the Fire Daimyo by setting up his own independent group of ninjas. Danzo, and every Ne operative unwilling to swear allegiance to their proper lords, had been executed decades ago.

One thing was certain to Hiruzen as he smoked his pipe and considered how to best utilize Naruto's kekkei genkai. Several new laws would have to be made specifically for Naruto and anyone else wielding this currently unnamed kekkei genkai. The first rule Hiruzen could think of off the top of his head was that Naruto and his decendents would have to be forbidden to marry anyone who was not a citizen of Konoha or the Land of Fire. Come to think of it, Naruto and his descendants should also be barred from visiting any bordello other than the one inside Konoha. Harsh, but it would only take one time for an enemy kunoichi bedding Naruto or his descendants while using a conception jutsu and then Konoha's enemies would have the intelligence windfall of the century.

While such a law would be the first of its kind, it wasn't entirely without any form of precedent. Most ninja clans with kekkei genkai strongly discouraged their members from 'sowing their wild oats' as the saying went. A few clans, the Hyuga and the Uchiha for example in Konoha, traditionally kept a private prostitute on retainer who was supposed to be the only person that their clan members went to for such services. Hiruzen and his predecessors didn't do anything about that tradition because it didn't harm anyone and it frankly was none of their business. There were also laws on the books concerning certain clans due to various abilities they had. The Uchiha were yet again an example in that they were not allowed to activate their Sharingan in the presence of the Daimyo, but then most ninjas from clans couldn't demonstrate their signature abilities in front of the Daimyo outside of certain circumstances.

Making any law against a specific clan tended to be dicey at the best of times as almost every other clan would typically throw their weight in opposing such a law. Hell, Hiruzen and the Daimyo's other vassals did the same thing whenever the Fire Daimyo made a law that encroached on any of their privileges or rights. Still, Hiruzen was pretty sure that the various clans would grudgingly allow such a law given security concerns and the fact that it wasn't that limiting from a practical stand point. International marriages were very rare in general and practically unheard of among ninjas. Also, most ninjas spent their free time in the village and were usually only out of Konoha while on a mission.

Hiruzen refreshed his pipe's tobacco as he considered the potential headache more thoroughly. In any rate it wasn't like he needed to make a law on Naruto's sexual partners now. The boy was only 7 for the Rikudou Sennin's sake. All he had to do was work on the law a little bit at a time for a few weeks or months and then once it was fully polish put it into effect at the opportune time. He'd already done it over a dozen times before with other tricky laws during his first term as Hokage.

* * *

A month later, Konoha was woken up on morning by the sounds of combat coming from the Uchiha district. Many of the ninjas who lived in nearby neighborhoods heard the sounds and jumped into action. They started sending out calls of alarm which alerted even more ninjas to come to the district. When the Konoha shinobi entered the Uchiha district, they were shocked at what they saw.

Assembled in the district was the largest gathering of ANBU in one place most ninjas had ever seen. What made this gathering of Konoha's elite operatives even more shocking was the fact that many of the ANBU had blood on their swords and had rounded up most of the Uchiha children and gathered them into one of the playgrounds with almost a dozen ANBU guards. A few ANBU were seen dragging children and younger genin from their homes and leading them to the gathering playground. Several ANBU were spotted coming out of houses with the severed heads of one or more Uchihas. These heads were placed at an obviously predetermined spot well away from the children where the Hokage was standing in battle armor with a list checking something off as he looked at the heads. When Hiruzen saw many of the heads, especially those belonging to teenagers and young adults, he seemed to slump for a split second and write the person's name onto the list.

One of the ANBU noted the growing crowd of shocked ninjas and leaned over to mention it to the Hokage. Hiruzen nodded his head and then handed the clipboard with the list to the ANBU and then calmly walked over to the assembled crowd. The aged leader pulled out all of his experience as he pulled out his pipe to project an air of complete calmness and relaxation as he took a smoke. "Good morning everyone. However, I must say that many of your personal reaction times need a little bit of work. We might not be able to use the warning system if this incident had been in invasion instead of a simple traitor removal operation. Now I'll grant you that this is a time of peace, the internal warning system was not activated, and the ANBU were focused on being as silent as possible to give the traitors no warning. However, an enemy with an inside agent could cause problems using similar methods."

Hiashi Hyuga was one of the clan leaders that had worked their way up to the front of the ninjas and was the closest one to the Hokage. The Hyuga clan head was not friends with the Uchihas either as a clan or with any particular members of the clan. He even had a mild dislike for Fugaku because the two of them had been rivals in the Academy and the duo always managed to annoy each other for one reason or another outside of professional interactions.

However, Hiashi was not about to sit around and watch a prominent clan get thrown through the meat grinder without a solid explanation and a valid reason for the Uchihas to get this treatment. If Hiashi wasn't satisfied he planned to get all of the Hyugas to refuse to accept any missions not specifically requested by the Daimyo. He would also pull all of the clan's investments out of the village. No doubt the other clan leaders would proceed with similar actions if the Hokage couldn't justify his actions and accusations. Hiashi forcefully demanded, "What treason have the Uchihas done?"

No punches were pulled when Hiruzen dropped the mother of all explosive notes. "Recent evidence has come to light and been verified that proves that the Uchiha were behind the Kyuubi attack on Konoha seven years ago." Gasps of shock and horror came from the assembled shinobis. Hiruzen calmly continued as he had gotten over his shock days ago. "An Uchiha who had previously been listed as KIA killed several shinobi and captured the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi we had at the time whose seal had been weakened and was undergoing some repairs by the Yondaime. This Uchiha, whose name will be stricken from the memorial stone later today, brought the jinchuuriki to a specially prepared area on the Uchiha clan grounds that was used to remove the Kyuubi from the jinchuuriki. This operation happened with the approval of several of the Uchiha elders with the former clan leader's wife informing everyone about the jinchuuriki going in for special seal maintenance needed to the seal used to seal the Kyuubi into her. Furthermore, the elders of the Uchiha advised everyone in their clan to hide from the attack to conserve the clan's strength."

"Their plans for the immediate aftermath of the attack are currently unknown as Yondaime was able to take care of the Kyuubi before too much damage was done. However, further investigations into the Uchihas have revealed that the entire Uchiha leadership has been planning a coup and has been building up support among the Uchiha ninjas for a civil war. For their treasonous acts, the Uchiha clan head, Uchiha elders, and known Uchiha supporters of the coup have been sentenced to death. Any Uchiha of Chunin rank or above who does not stand down the ANBU during this purge and resists is being executed as a probable traitor."

Shock and the beginning of understanding showed on the assembled shinobi. They were mostly used to dealing with Hiruzen's jovial and caring regular personality. It had been years since Hiruzen had needed to slip on the 'God of Shinobi' personality mask in front of a large group of Konoha ninjas. Hiruzen then continued to explain the Uchiha's punishment for their act of betrayal to insure that no clan ever thought of starting a civil war. "For their crimes against Konoha and the Land of Fire the Uchiha Clan will be punished as follows. All lands, monies, and weapons personally held by the traitors is confiscated. 90 percent of all money held in the joint clan account will be confiscated. The Uchiha Clan is stripped of its command of Konoha's military police force. All jutsus known by the traitors, minus those nominally held only by loyal Konoha Clans, will be extracted by a specialist and made part of the general ninja force's jutsu library."

All of the clan heads in hearing range had to fight down a shiver when they heard the Sandaime's punishment of the Uchiha Clan. None of them could argue against the harsh punishment since the Uchiha's had tried to massacre them all with the Kyuubi attack and then were preparing to try and take over the village. They would want to see hard reports of this evidence, but they trusted Hiruzen to be telling the truth for now. However, none of the clan leaders liked the idea of a powerful clan being shattered in so through a manner. If it happened once it could happen again and that was the warning Hiruzen was sending. Keep your clans loyal because traitors will be crushed into dust.

* * *

Almost another month later Hiruzen had another headache just as he was finishing up the last major bits of paperwork from the Uchiha Purge. The source of Hiruzen's headache was the seven year old Naruto sitting in front of him trying to look as innocent as possible. Hiruzen looked down at Inoichi's report at his and Naruto's latest training session on the boy's kekkei genkai. The old Hokage then said, "So Naruto, I understand that you've made a breakthrough in accessing memories farther down your line than your grandparents."

Naruto nodded his head and said, "Yes sir grandfather Hokage. I'm finally able to access those older memories since I figured out a trick to not call up memories of ancestors closer to me as I try to access the older generations." That had been a major issue for Naruto over the past two months even when he spent as much of his free time training as he possible could with his kekkei genkai. He was an orphan, why wouldn't he try to enjoy memories of his parents or vicariously see what it felt like to grow up in a loving house?

However, whenever Naruto tried to access memories from his grandparents he always got lots of Minato's memories pulled up as well. When he tried to get his great-grandparents Naruto ended up nearly drowning those memories with Mimi and Minato's memories that he had dragged up as well. Inoichi had helped Naruto to realize that he had been using the equivalent of a net to capture memory bubbles from his mindscape's memory hurricane and bring them up so that he could view them. Naturally, the net also caught everything else in its path which is why Naruto got so many of the in between generations memories as well. Thanks to Inoichi, Naruto was able to create the mental equivalent of a fishing hook to snag the memory or memories he wanted to experience.

Naruto then continued talking. "Inoichi mentioned that you wanted to know more about my family line and whose memories I have in my head. I wrote up the family tree that he should have given you. Everyone from my great-grandmother on back to the first person to carry the Aima Sophia were merchants or craftsmen so I don't think you'll be too worried about their memories for security purposes. My great-grandfather on the other hand is another story."

That was an understatement in the Sandaime's book as he glanced over to the family tree Naruto had made to see the name Tobirama Senju as Mimi Namikaze's father. On the one hand, Tobirama being Mimi's father finally answered the question Hiruzen had of why the Nidaime had been so interested in her career. Part of Hiruzen wondered if Tobirama had always known about being Mimi's father or if he had only discovered that fact later. In all honestly, the question was pointless at this date and time. Why Tobirama chose to keep his relationship with Mimi secret, if he ever truly knew for certain, was his business. It wouldn't be the first time a shinobi had an illegitimate child with a civilian that they kept a discreet distance towards to protect said child from their enemies. Sometimes these children followed Mimi's path and became ninjas hoping to become closer to their unknown parent. The rest of the time the children chose to pursue their own careers using their civilian anonymity to have a greater freedom of career choice than their legitimate shinobi clan siblings.

On the other hand, Tobirama and his memories being part of Naruto's inherited memories was still very relevant to the security of Konoha. The Shodaime might have founded Konoha, but it was the Nidaime that oversaw the details that went into designing the actual village and its defenses. Tobirama was also the founder of ANBU and his fingerprints were still all over ANBU after all of these decades. Furthermore, the Nidaime's general knowledge as Hokage combined with the Yondaime's general knowledge provided two very powerful data points for enemy intelligence. They would allow a semi-competent analysis team to figure out how Konoha developed during the Sandaime's reign and chart a likely prediction of how Konoha would grow and adapt.

Hiruzen shook his head and reminded himself that this latest revelation didn't really change anything from a security perspective. Naruto and his descendants' pillowing partners was already a matter of national security. Used correctly it could even be a boon to Konoha since the fact that the Senju bloodline was still in existence and capable of being perpetuated would be a strong prestige and moral lifting piece of news. Not that this would release to the general public just yet; there was no need to draw the attention of every assassin and big name hunter in the Elemental Nations after a seven year old.

However, there was one thing that Naruto had said that really piqued Hiruzen's interest. "Naruto, you said the other carriers of the Aima Sophia. Is Aima Sophia the name of your kekkei genkai? If so, where does the name come from as it doesn't sound like anything from any dialect known in the Elemental Nations."

Naruto nodded his head and replied, "Yep, Aima Sophia is my kekkei genkai's name since that's what the original bearer called it when he received it. How he got it isn't too clear since those are the earliest memories I inherited. So far, I've called up memories of a shinobi researcher being saved and a bunch of seals used to test out the shinobi's greatest idea. I think the shinobi in question was an Uzumaki, but I'm having a lot of trouble calling up those memories at the moment. Hell, those memories I'm thinking of might not even be showing me the source of my kekkei genkai. Basil Katsopolis went through a lot of crazy adventures even before he arrived in the elemental nations. My bloodline could have been derived from one of those incidents. As I said, I'm having trouble accessing Basil's memories with clarity at the moment. Anyway, to get back to your question Aima Sophia means 'blood wisdom' in Basil's native tongue. I sincerely doubt that you would have ever heard of his language since Basil was a merchant originally from a great empire on the opposite side of the Celestial Continent well beyond the boundaries of the Celestial Empire."

That would indeed explain why Hiruzen had never heard of the language that Naruto's kekkei genkai's name came from. Across the Western Sea from the Elemental Nations was a massive continent. That continent was generally called the Celestial Continent due to most of the known lands on the continent being ruled by a massive kingdom known as the Celestial Empire. Very little was known about the Celestial Empire given its insular nature and the fact that most of the countries in the Elemental Nations didn't really care about the lands across the Western Sea. A few nations had some trading links to the continent which mostly came through the pirate kingdoms of the Comet Peninsula which lay to the northeast of the Celestial Empire. There was also a trade route via Moon Country which was located in the southern most reaches of the Western Sea. However, those trade routes did not pass through the Land of Fire so Hiruzen's knowledge of Celestial Continent was very limited since it was not a priority for him to know.

Hiruzen then rose from his chair and said, "Thank you for giving me this update on your training Naruto. I'm trusting you to maintain an appropriate level of discreetness about any facts you might learn while mastering your Aima Sophia. Even though you won't be starting the Ninja Academy for a couple more weeks, I have to hold you to same level of responsibility as a licensed shinobi with regards to the secrets your ancestors learned. It's unfair, but then it's also unfair to your future classmates that you're going into the Ninja Academy with all of that knowledge and experience resting in your inherited memories."

The Hokage gave Naruto a brief hug and then let Naruto out of the office. He then went to the desk and wrote up a mission for the intelligence department to locate Basil Katsopolis's family tree and determine who his other living descendants were if any besides Naruto existed. Given how guarded most clans were with their family registers, the need to follow every blood relation as Naruto was descended from Basil through three generations of daughters, and the need to keep quiet so as not to alert every other nation of the Aima Sophia this would be a long and very difficult mission. Hiruzen just hoped that no other current or past Konoha secrets were potentially compromised by the Aima Sophia. The Uzumaki line already was a permanent curse of headaches to all future Hokages thanks to the Aima Sophia and that curse would just get more severe as the generations went by.

* * *

Naruto left the Hokage Tower and slowly walked through the streets of Konoha. The refusal to recognize his existence and the occasional harsh glares that Naruto was used to seeing whenever he left the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex had vanished completely. Occasionally, Naruto saw a grudging nod of approval from some of the passing shinobi and some of the older civilians. The rest of the people, if they saw him at all, simply gave Naruto the same treatment that any stranger would be given. Konoha as a whole had accepted him and that put a smile on Naruto's face.

Had Naruto experienced this before he awoken the Aima Sophia he probably would have been skipping down the street from joy. The Aima Sophia and the wisdom it brought made this a bittersweet joy for Naruto. Naruto knew that part, a probably small part but still a part, of the reason he had been accepted by the general population was the fact that he had a kekkei genkai. Thanks to his now blue within blue eyes everyone could see that Naruto had a kekkei genkai. In the shinobi world, kekkei genkai were a big advertising advantage to draw in clients besides the daimyo along with renowned shinobi and famous clans.

But, the majority of Naruto's acceptance by Konoha was a result of the downfall of the Uchiha. The exact details were a secret for time being, but it had become leaked that the initial information about Obito the Betrayer had come from Naruto thanks to his Aima Sophia. Almost everyone in the village was in the dark about what exactly his kekkei genkai did. It was known inside the village that Naruto's bloodline abilities involved the preservation and recall of memories somehow.

Hiruzen had also helped Naruto by allowing it to become known that Naruto's parents had been two very powerful and very close ninjas to the Yondaime. Furthermore, the Hokage had also allowed it to become known that Naruto's parents had volunteered him for his status as a jinchuuriki and that they had died from wounds suffered to insure that the sealing was a success. Those who knew the truth about Kushina and Minato enjoyed Hiruzen's subtle play on the truth. Everything was true, but said in such a way to hide the truth. The true story that became commonly accepted by the village was one that Hiruzen had hopped for when he seized the opportunity to help Naruto out during the Uchiha Purge fallout.

To the average civilian, Naruto Uzumaki was obviously the son of two unknown ANBUs who had been Minato's guards and troubleshooters. The boy's parents had died in the line of duty during the Kyuubi attack. It also became commonly known that Naruto's parents had told their just born child the truth of the attack knowing that their kekkei genkai would insure that Naruto would one day be able to pass along the truth to everyone else. The best part of this story was that no one who knew the truth had needed to steer the crowd to this final story. It had been concocted whole cloth the civilians themselves based on what had and hadn't been told to them.

The sound of a vegetable flying through the air pull Naruto out of his thoughts as he round a corner. Naruto watched in surprise and a bit of shock as one merchant threw some of his rotten produce at the foot of a black haired kid roughly Naruto's age. The merchant growled out, "Get out of here you traitor's spawn. We don't need your kind to try a third time to wreck the village. This is a marketplace for loyal customers only!"

Naruto watched in silent surprised as the kid's eyes seem to get misty from unshed tears and then he turned and started running away. The Uchiha crest was clearly displayed on the back of the kid's shirt and it seemed to be a magnet for all the eyes of the surrounding citizens pulling their loathing to the surface. All of the simmering hate and anger that the general population had directed at Naruto had transferred to the Uchiha clan with massive amounts of penalties and interest. The Kyuubi's attack hadn't been a random act of mindless violence as many had thought. It had been an act of betrayal in a series of betrayals by a group that had been loved and respected by the civilian population. That made the Uchihas' crimes all the worse and unforgivable to most of Konoha.

A sick feeling overcame Naruto when he saw everyone's reactions to the young Uchiha as he could easily imagine himself in the boy's position. What made the situation even worse for Naruto was that a small part of him felt vindictive pleasure at the Uchihas' plight and that fact made him ill. Naruto didn't want to paint the remaining Uchihas with the same brush as the traitors that had been killed. They were innocent of any wrong doing! It was wrong when the villagers treated him badly because of the Kyuubi and it was wrong now with how they were treating the Uchihas. Doing that would just make him a damn hypocrite.

Despite how much Naruto wanted to not feel that pleasure, it wouldn't go away even as he balled his fists so tightly his fingernails started to draw blood. All kekkei genkais have a downside to them even if they were usually kept hidden for good reasons. The Aima Sophia's downside was also its strength of remembering. Naruto remembered his mother's close friendship with Mikoto Uchiha. Mikoto had even named Kushina as Itachi's godmother! Yet, it had been Mikoto who had sold Kushina out to be killed by Obito the night Naruto was born. Speaking of The Betrayer, Minato had been the one to be there for Obito throughout his career as a shinobi of Konoha. Minato had believed in Obito and his possibilities for the future even when the boy's own parents wrote off his potential as a ninja. All that trust and support had been repaid by Obito killing Minato's wife, threatening to kill his only child, and trying to destroy Minato's home.

Thanks to Aima Sophia, Naruto felt each betrayal as fresh and as personally as his parents had. Feeling two close betrayals from different members of the same clan and knowing that those betrayals resulted in him being alone as an orphan really soured Naruto's opinion of the Uchihas. Then there was great-grandfather Tobirama's memories of the Uchihas that Naruto was starting to deal with that only dropped his opinion of the clan lower.

Naruto closed his eyes and took several steady breaths. As Inoichi had taught him, Naruto repeated to himself over and over again in his mind that his ancestors' memories were his to use and that they did not control him. He was not his ancestors and he had his own life to live. They were not to live a second time through him. It took Naruto several minutes, but he was able to use the pain and the mantra to crush the pleasure born from his inherited memories.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto and the other orphans from the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex were led by the complex's commander in a straight line down the streets of Konoha to the Ninja Academy as was customary for the start of the Ninja Academy's school year. Since this was Naruto's first year at the Academy, he and his age bracket were at the front of the line behind the commander so that the older students could keep an eye on the newbies. Everyone in the line had the same style backpack loaded with their textbooks for the year and a supply of kunai and shuriken. These packs had been checked the night before by the kids under the watchful eye of the commander to insure everything was in order. Farther down the line with the older students the backpacks had a bit of variety in them based on which elective course the student was taking.

As the group turned a corner it was joined by a larger and less discipline group of orphans. These children were from the civilian orphanage that had elected to go into the ninja program instead of one of the trade schools. Naruto knew thanks to Aima Sophia that roughly a sixth of the civilian orphans would drop out of the program in a few months to go to various trade schools. It was a sad thought, but statistically much better than the children from living civilian families of whom half were expected to drop out in the same time frame. Conventional wisdom held that anyone who could last the first two years in the Academy would be in the military for their career. Those who weren't able to make it as shinobi generally joined the regular military forces of the Land of Fire as ashigaru. Given their earlier training in chakra usage and military tactics, the dropouts who became ashigaru were well positions to easily advance in rank among the ashigaru and had a higher chance of being elevated to the ranks of the Samurai.

The composite orphan group soon reached the Ninja Academy where it seemed like a third of the village was trying to gather at once. Parents and older siblings were leading ninja hopefuls to their first day of school. Older students were gathering and sharing stories about what they had been up to on the short summer vacation. Off to the side were parents who had already dropped off their children and had found an old classmate that they needed to catch up with. Sprinkled throughout the crowd were the academy instructors almost futility trying to bring some sort of order to the chaos. This almost carnival like atmosphere always happened on the first day of the Ninja Academy and Naruto could testify to that thanks to his kekkei genkai.

Navigating that crowd might as well have been a preliminary screening test for ninja hopefuls given how difficult it was to do. Somehow, Naruto and the others were able to make their way to the Ninja Academy doors and entered the building. The commander led both groups of orphans to message board where they were able to see which rooms were posted as their home rooms. He then left Naruto and his fellow orphans alone knowing that they could get themselves to their classrooms.

It took Naruto a second to find his name and then he headed off towards classroom. Unlike the other new students, Naruto didn't look around trying to make sure he was following the signs to the various classrooms correctly. A quick glance every now and then confirmed that the Academy hadn't undergone any major renovations since Minato and Kushina had picked up their genin squads. Naruto was thus able to effortlessly navigate the Academy and be the first student to reach his classroom. He quickly confirmed this by double-checking the list of students posted on the classroom door. The young student then entered the classroom and took a seat towards the back that would let him easily pay attention to the lesson without being the center of the teacher's attention.

The young student sat in his chair at his selected desk and closed his eyes to fully activate his Aima Sophia. Naruto instantly felt himself enter his mindscape effortlessly floating in the eye of the memory storm. Thanks to Inoichi's training, Naruto knew he had a 60:1 time ratio when using his Aima Sophia to access memories. That is, for every minute in here only a second would pass in the real world. Naruto then spent the next two 'hours' in his mindscape trying to access his own memories. His kekkei genkai was recording his memories for future generations so it made logical sense to Naruto that he should be able to access those memories as well. It would be a very good training tool for him to be able to review any mistakes he made to correct them in the future.

Naruto wasn't able to call up the memories, but he felt a small tug as he tried to summon the memory bubble containing last night's dinner. That tug reassured Naruto that it would be possible for him to recall his own personal memories along with ancestors' memories. Why his own memory was harder to access didn't make any sense to the young student. Maybe it had something to do with his bloodline recording his memories? After all, his ancestors' memories were already recorded and they were much easier for Naruto access no matter the generations. It could be due to something else entirely. As the first known person to actively use the Aima Sophia Naruto was figuring his bloodline out as he went.

For a brief moment, Naruto left his mindscape to double check the time in the real world. Once Naruto had confirmed the remaining time he returned to his mindscape. Naruto then sent out his mental hooks to call up his parents' memories of school. Part of Naruto was surprised that he snagged several memories as quickly as he expected that his hooks would have to travel deeper in his parents' memories to reach their academy days. Curiosity got the better of the young boy and he pulled those memories up so that they could be played.

As soon as the first memory started to play Naruto wished he could forget or better yet erase certain memories. Inoichi and Naruto had tested the possibility of erasing ancestral memories using special Yamanaka jutsus to erase a few memories of what Minato and other ancestors had for dinner on a certain night for each ancestor. The erased memories restored themselves seconds after they were removed thanks to them being stored in Naruto's DNA. Aima Sophia was also a double edged weapon since it was extremely easy for Naruto to recall memories once he viewed them in his mindscape. In most cases this was a good thing for Naruto, but not now.

Floating in front of Naruto were two memory bubbles in a series of memories. Memory bubbles could show like this when it involved events that two or more ancestors had been involved. Once again, this could be an advantage by providing more points of view on an event. For Naruto it just provided twice the trauma. The memory bubbles were showing his mother dressed in a cosplay slutty student outfit and his father dressed up as a teacher. It was horrifying for Naruto to learn that his parents had actually snuck into the Ninja Academy for some naughty roleplaying sessions on multiple occasions.

Naruto was able to stop recalling those memories before his parents memories go to the real X rated stuff. That would have completely traumatized him. Naruto quickly banished those memories he had gathered back to their resting locations and vowed to never ever get himself into detention as he left his mindscape. The boy didn't care how many years had passed or how many times that room had been scrubbed. Unless someone used an A rank katon jutsu on the detention room it would never be clean in his opinion.

* * *

Much of the classwork hadn't changed since Naruto's parents and grandparents went to school. History got updated obviously and geography had a few changes on the map due to wars shifting some boarders. However, most of the core classes remained unchanged. Math, Writing, and the basic sciences always the same. Poisons 101 remained the same as did the training courses in physical training. Tactics 101 was functionally the same, but the simulation games that were played from time to time were different. Shogi had been the game of choice for tactics in his parent's day. About two decades ago a new game had become popular in the academy for training even if it failed to become popular with the general population. This training game used different markers to represent different levels of ninjas with stat lines for each type and dice to determine outcomes.

Most of the kids in school hated the training game. The rulebook for the game was a third the size of their textbooks. Each phase of the game was timed by the instructors with any possible actions not performed in the allotted time being lost. In each match the kids would have to take into consideration various variable conditions like weather, time of day, and terrain that dramatically changed the game map. There was also the fact that they never got a 'standard' set of game pieces. Sometimes the instructors would give the students resource points to pick their forces with different pieces having different value and on other times they would assign certain armies act out a scenario. Added onto this was the dice rolls which added a great deal of unpredictability in how things could go. Generally, higher ranked pieces had better results on dice rolls but that wasn't always the case. A noted example of that was when one of Naruto's genin squads wiped out four of Shikamaru's Jonin squads in a mission because of some lucky dice rolls.

Unlike most students, Naruto loved the game in Tactics 101. It had been a bit difficult for him to learn all of the rules, but it was far better than shogi ever was for teaching applicable tactics for combat. Thanks to Aima Sophia, Naruto knew that war was not something clean with plenty of time to think things over or filled with any certainties what so ever. If you can't think fast or react to unexpected actions you and your team were dead. Leaders often had to pick to their teammates from a limited pool of available ninjas. If they picked their teams poorly then the mission would fail and they would likely die. A team could be returning from one mission and circumstances could force them to deal with something completely unexpected. If the ninjas couldn't adapt to being out of their comfort zone then they could die. Before the first semester was halfway done, Naruto had become the undisputed king of the practical portion of Tactics and one of the top leaders in the theoretical portion.

Tactics 101 wasn't the only course Naruto shined in. The young student did very well in all of the practical courses involving physical activity. He was a naturally energetic and active kid with a great deal of determination. The physical fitness trainers couldn't ask for a better student at his age group. Often, Naruto was number one student in those classes and if not, then he was at least in the top five. In the more academic courses Naruto had to put more effort into keeping up his grades since they didn't interest him as much. However, Naruto's determination, terror at the thought of ending up in detention, and Aima Sophia helped him to mostly stay in the top ten for those classes.

In addition to his classes, Naruto was also enjoying the opportunity to socialize with his fellow students. The shinobi orphans reaccepted Naruto as one of them again once the generally accepted story of Naruto's background became known to them. It made sense that Naruto wasn't told who his parents were since as ninjas close to and trusted by the Yondaime they had probably made a lot of enemies. The fact that Naruto had been trusted by his parents to pass vital information back to the current Hokage also won the boy massive amounts of points from his fellow orphans since that meant he had basically done a ninja mission before even becoming a ninja. The orphans from the civilian orphanage who were at the academy seemed to have a natural difference to the shinobi orphans who, due to school districts, they had never interacted with before. One or two of the shinobi orphans tried to lord it up over the civilian orphans, but Naruto and the others quickly put those kids back in their place. Naruto's friendly and helpful personality quickly won him more friends among the civilian orphans.

The young boy didn't have any real friends outside of the orphans, but he did have a lot of friendly acquaintances. Most of the civilian students had stopped considering Naruto to be bad news since their parents stopped calling him that. The few who didn't had been part of the group that had quit the Academy early on given the rigors of the classwork. Most of the civilian kids didn't really think about their parents' earlier attitudes towards Naruto and those that did simply assumed that their parents had considered Naruto to be unlucky since he had been born on the Kyuubi attack. Most the shinobi children didn't have a big preconceived idea about Naruto before they met him. The ones that did meet Naruto in between classes though he was a friendly enough guy. However, the shinobi children already had their circles of friends from play dates and generally were focused on passing the Academy.

There was one group in the Academy that absolutely hated Naruto and that was the remains of the Uchiha Clan. Currently, there were only three Uchihas attending the Academy and only Sasuke Uchiha was in Naruto's year. All of the Uchihas in the Academy hated Naruto with a passion blaming him for their clan's fall from grace. The actions of Obito the Betrayer, their clan leadership, or their parents didn't register to the kids. What mattered to the older students was the fact that they used to be the most respected students in the school and now they were considered lower than dog shit with all of their former friends and hangers on despising them. Sasuke hated Naruto because in the Uchiha Purge he had lost his parents, his house, almost all his things, most of the remaining clan wouldn't talk to him, and he was now forced to live in cramp apartment with Itachi in a bad neighborhood.

Naruto had tried once to work past his own dislike for the clan and befriend the Uchihas at lunch on the first week of school. He had walked over to the table that the three Uchihas had been exiled to by the other students and asked if he could sit down. One of the older Uchihas had pulled out a kunai to threaten Naruto. Several of the other students sitting nearby saw the kunai being drawn and everything went downhill from there. The general ninja brawl that occurred as a result frightened away 10 students from the program because of the kunais and shurikens that had been thrown everywhere. Naruto was grateful that he didn't have any punishments as the academy instructors quickly decided that the brawl wasn't his fault. It did cause the boy to stop any further attempts to make peace with the Uchihas. On the plus side, it did show Naruto that his future comrades would have his back.

* * *

The second year at the Ninja Academy continued much like the first year for Naruto. This was the year that the Academy introduced chakra exercises into the coursework. Chakra wasn't taught outside of academic studies in the first year for safety concerns. Chakra did use one's own life force after all and the Academy instructors wanted to insure that all of the students had an adequate surplus of chakra so that the students could safely manipulate their chakra. In this class the shinobi children had an edge over the children with a civilian background.

The reason for this difference was twofold. First, before being born a child's chakra network is shaped and nurtured by the mother's chakra. Even a weak kunoichi's chakra reserves were far stronger than a civilian's reserves meaning more chakra could go into developing and strengthening of an unborn child's chakra network. The average kunoichi's newborn would have the chakra network and chakra reserves comparable to a two year old civilian's child while stronger kunoichi's children would be born even stronger. Secondly, shinobi families and the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex encouraged kids to be far more active physically so that their chakra reserves would grow better. Several shinobi families even introduced basic chakra exercises a year before their children even started at the Ninja Academy. These differences weren't insurmountable for the civilian kids, but they had to play catch up none the less.

Naruto was struggling in his practical Chakra Usage classes for the exact opposite reason as everyone else who was having trouble in the class. He had way too much chakra to control with the exercises taught in the course work. Kushina had been an exceptionally powerful kunoichi in her own right and she also had been the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi. That meant that Naruto's chakra network had gotten far more exercise and development before he was born thanks to all that extra chakra and the additional month in the womb than any child born in recorded medical history. It was noted in Naruto's medical files that recovered data from Kushina's birthing chamber put his birth chakra network as roughly equivalent to a ten year olds. Some of the doctors were skeptical of this reading given that some of the Kyuubi's chakra had been released during birth and Obito's assault. Still didn't change the fact that Naruto had an utterly massive amount of chakra naturally and constantly holding back the Kyuubi's chakra was absolutely wonderful from the perspective of building chakra reserves.

Aima Sophia really came through for Naruto by giving him knowledge of chakra control exercises that were usually reserved for genin or chunin to learn. These reservations weren't due to any legal restrictions so Naruto wouldn't be in trouble if others found out he was learning those exercises. It's just that typically shinobi didn't have the reserves where exercises like tree walking and water walking would both help in control and be useful in a fight until they were genins or chunins. Thanks to constant practice with high level exercises, Naruto was able to claw his way up into the upper third in Chakra Usage class.

Chakra Usage was still Naruto's worse subject for the year and he utterly flunked the regular bunshin jutsu. It was only towards the end of year that Naruto got the bunshin jutsu and even then he really didn't get it. He used Aima Sophia to learn the Kage bunshin jutsu that his great grandfather invented and disguised the jutsu use in class. Fudging the hand seal to hide the kage bunshins as regular bunshins wasted a lot of chakra. This chakra loss from incorrect hand seal was why correct hand seals were drilled into all students at the Academy. Because of his massive chakra reserves, Naruto was able to create four kage bunshin with the massive chakra penalties from incorrect hand seals without being negatively affected in class.

The introduction of practical chakra usage caused a fair number of students to drop out of the Academy. Mostly the students who dropped out at that point were the ones who had been struggling to complete the physical training courses since they had the smallest reserves. However, the big drop out for second year students didn't happen until near the midterms. That was when the hidden desensitization course happened. This course was to help the students get more used to the future possibility of killing by taking them in small groups to the various ranches that existed outside the village proper, but still within Konoha's Han. The students had been told it was a two week long workshop to teach them the basics about fitting in for long term infiltration missions and that was part of the workshop's goals.

For two weeks the students became ranchers learning how to take care of the animals as well as how to observe things without seeming to be observant. Then on the last day the desensitization training hit the kids when they were handed a knife and told to either kill one of the young animals on the ranch with just the knife or they would flunk the Academy. This came as a shock to the students as they had become attached to the animals on the ranch. It also was extremely difficult for a ten year old to hold down even the young animals by themselves so those students who did choose to kill a youngling almost always had sloppy kills.

A third of the students were thrown out of the Ninja Academy immediately when they refused to kill the animals. Konoha and the Land of Fire did not need warriors who couldn't follow orders or couldn't take a life. The kids who had killed the animals were given counseling sessions when they returned to the village. About a fourth of the kids would drop out of the program unable to accept that they'd likely have to commit future killings if they became shinobi or joined the regular military. Still, Naruto knew that the current system was an improvement over the desensitization training his parents had. They had been given baby rabbits at the beginning on the semester to take care of. Then on midterms when the bunnies had been brought in to rate how well the kids had taken care of their rabbits the kids were ordered to snap the animals' necks.

The chance of a student quitting the Academy or being kicked out plummeted to near non-existent after the second year butcher workshop dropout spree ended. The second year students going into the second semester were about a fourth as numerous as they had been on the first day of their first year of the Academy. Such rates were about average for the Ninja Academy where it was expected that only 20 to 30 percent of the starting student body would graduate from the institution. By this point the instructors had weeded away those with only a casual interest in being a ninja, those who couldn't handle the basic training, and those who were completely unsuited for the shinobi lifestyle. What they had left was a student body suited for the military. The question of whether the students would go on to become shinobi or have to settle as being ashigaru still needed to be answered.

* * *

Third year introduced some specialization for the future ninjas. The Academy hours were increased at this year level to open up time for more classes. Everyone was required to take at least one class and allowed to take two different classes. Those students who had consistently maintained a high grade point average were allowed to take a third class if they could keep up their grades. For those students with average and low grades or the better students who decided against a third class, the time blocked off for the second or third class became a study hall period.

Naruto was doing well enough academically that he got the option to have three extra classes. After looking at the optional classes, he decided to go with taking the Fuuinjutsu, Kenjutsu, and Advance Stealth. Naruto chose the first two classes because they were challenging courses, especially the fuuinjutsu class, with usually the fewest applications. Taking those classes would also let Naruto practice some skills he could learn with the Aima Sophia without having to reveal that aspect of his kekkei genkai. Advance Stealth was chosen because it was always a good thing to be able to get the drop on one's enemies.

Advance Tracking had been a close choice in place of Advance Stealth. Being able to find ones enemies was just as important as avoiding them finding you. Naruto had thought long and hard, but in the end the stealth course offer more advantage for Naruto. It was difficult to get more than an average grade in the Advance Tracking class if one didn't have a kekkei genkai or access to jutsus suited for recon. Naruto could make better use of the Advance Stealth courses. Besides, with his built in jutsu library, inherited battle experience, and the Kyuubi Naruto would be better suited in the future for elite guard and/or heavy assault duties than recon duties.

Naruto did very well in his new classes like he did in the regular classes. His Aima Sophia was a massive help as always since it allowed Naruto to learn most of the information taught in class far faster. He therefore had more time to focus on parts of the lesson that might cause him difficulty and on practicing the lessons. This year was when Naruto had a massive breakthrough with his Aima Sophia by figuring out how to access his own memories. Naruto was thus able to fully review a lesson with only a minute or two of meditation. Furthermore, Naruto found that his kekkei genkai preserved parts of events he didn't previously consciously remember. Details he didn't think about like what his fellow students were wearing in a lecture were preserved because his eyes saw it. Every speech his senseis gave could be heard without any fluctuation in the memories even though Naruto's mind had wandered at the time because his ears had heard the speech.

All of Naruto's efforts in mastering the Aima Sophia didn't just result in him being able to access his own memories. His inherited memories became richer and Naruto could access more information from each memory. Naruto found that he didn't just watch the memories, but he could also hear the ancestor's thoughts in each memory and feel the emotions they experienced at that particular moment. With the ninja ancestors Naruto could also sense how their chakra felt when they were training or using jutsus. This gave Naruto an even greater edge in his ninja training making his training more like a wounded ninja going through reconditioning after temporary medical leave than a student learning for the first time.

Not that it was easy for Naruto to get to that point with the Aima Sophia. He had to experience literally years of his various ancestors lives to get that kind of control with his kekkei genkai. It had been difficult, but Naruto had slowly figured out a way to submerge himself in a memory without getting lost in the memory. Part of the difficulty in getting more out of a memory is that Naruto had to fully accept that all of his ancestors' lives were open to him and that in turn his life would be completely open to his descendants. He couldn't just cherry pick form their memories if he wanted to completely understand the wisdom and experience they had passed on to him.

Living extra years thanks to his memories was not something Naruto could completely hide. Naruto's eyes showed experience far beyond his years for those who gave the blue within blue orbs a close look. He carried himself without the childish worries and concerns that children had. Naruto gain a reputation for helping other students out if they had an issue and asked him for help. Naruto didn't mind helping the other students and he didn't try to make himself seem better than others because he could help out. He knew that he might one day have to depend on one of his classmates to save his life or someone else's life on a mission.

The second half of year 3 was usually when the students really started to pick rivals and Naruto's year was no exception. By this point the students started to become confident in their abilities and were fairly certain that their friends wouldn't quit the Academy for one reason or another. It would be very embarrassing to mark someone as a rival only for them to quit a week later. The academy instructors were happy to direct these emerging rivalries to get their students to do better in class. At the same time, they also tried to make sure that any emerging rivalries didn't become disruptive in class or worse toxic to the future shinobi's interactions.

Controlling student rivalries in Naruto's year group was successful for the instructors with one glaring exception. The Uchiha/Uzumaki rivalry that sprung up early in the school year was perhaps the worse school rivalry that the Ninja Academy had ever seen. Naruto had maintained a frosty indifference to the three Uchihas in the Academy after his attempt at peace epically failed. Sasuke had kept a lid on his simmering hatred after the Head of the Academy verbally ripped him and the other two students a new one and then Itachi ripped him another new one when he got home. But that only bought two years of peace for the Academy.

Naruto used his time in the Academy to forge friendships as well as learning the skills he'd need to defend himself and his future comrades. On the other hand, Sasuke used his time gain the skills and strength he'd need correct the perceived injustices delivered on his clan by Naruto's actions. Sasuke quickly learned how to mask his hate from showing on his face, but it was growing within him. The boy quickly developed a reputation in the Academy as a lone wolf genius forcing his classmates to respect him by crushing them in any match he could. Several instructors made notes of their concerns with Sasuke's attitude and actions. However, the boy had learned from the brawl and always made sure to stay on the proper side of the line even if his actions usually had him standing on the edge of it.

Itachi tried to help his brother out, but it was tough for the now newly made jonin, then chunin when Sasuke entered the Academy, to make enough money to support both him and Sasuke. The Uchiha Purge had whipped out all of the assets that had been in Mikoto's or Fugaku's name leaving the boys with basically the clothes on their backs and Itachi's rather meager personal bank account. None of the usual social programs set up to help young orphaned shinobi were accessible to the boys as the children of known traitors and none of the few remaining members of the clan were about to help the children of the worst clan head in the Uchiha's history. No one could fault Itachi as a provider or a teacher to his younger brother. Itachi had insured Sasuke had food, clothing, a roof over his head, and trained his brother in how to be ninja when he could in between missions. It's just that he had been a twelve year old newly made chunin who had his world turned upside down with almost all usual avenues of support cut away from him by his parents' actions. Additionally, he had to raise his seven year old brother who also going through the same situation as him.

In the third year, Sasuke started to call out Naruto determined to put Naruto in his place. Naruto was not about to put up with Sasuke's attitude or pass up an opportunity to vent his own unsolved issues with the Uchiha Clan. Spars between the two were quickly and unofficially banned by the teachers who had courses that occasionally pit the students against each other because of how intense the boys' matches became. As the first semester continued on it started to get to the point that the just having the two boys close together in class made things uncomfortable for nearby students. To try and ease things in the classroom, the Head of the Academy quietly had Sasuke transferred to a different home room at the start of the second semester. He chose to transfer Sasuke because he was the one who tended to start most of the duo's squabbles.

Transferring Sasuke to a class that had a different schedule than Naruto's class eased the tension in the school caused by the duo. Both boys would barely have the opportunity to pass each other in the halls during school time and they both knew better than to start something at a time like that. However, the duo's rivalry did not end since third year was when the Academy started publicly publishing the students' grades. This was to encourage those doing poorly to work better and know who they should go to for study help. For the better students, this was to give them a goal to become the number one student for the year. Naruto's and Sasuke's were always next to each other near the top of the list and the duo were constantly swapping who was doing better than the other each time the list was updated.

* * *

Author's Note: Well that's most of the Academy years for Naruto and company. We'll have a touch of 'scenes of life' for year 4 before Naruto and gang actually graduate. I lowered Itachi's rank to try to make things a bit more believable. One of the few retcons that occurred in Naruto that I whole heartedly supported was Kakashi becoming older when he became a genin and a chunin than his original ages of 5 and 6 for those ranks. Even with Chakra his body wouldn't be developed enough to survive in a fight. A teen or an adult would be stronger, faster, have longer range, and better durability then a six year old. Besides, why on earth would any of the Hokages allow such a young child soldier in their forces who is almost certainly going to die?

When Itachi was first mentioned back in the early part of Naruto his age at the time Uchiha Massacre was somewhat vague. With how he was drawn it was easy to think he had been in his late teens or maybe early twenties. That age with his stated prodigy status made the massacre seem possible. But as more details became clear I was left scratching my head. How can a thirteen year old be powerful enough to become an ANBU captain which is supposed to be the head of a team of elite black ops soldiers? It's not like he had a seal giving him access to a bastardized version of Sage Mode or a biju sealed within him. There's a reason why there are youth and adult leagues in sports because the adults will almost always beat the kids and teens due to their bodies being more developed.

This doesn't mean I think that young shinobi can't ever beat older ninjas. After all, there is always things like getting the drop on an enemy, someone underestimating an opponent, teamwork, a powerful kekkei genkai that one doesn't know how to deal with, and sometimes just plan luck that can result in a younger ninja defeating an older ninja. What I am saying is that it is far more likely that an older ninja will beat a younger ninja simply because they would be physically stronger and has more experience.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again, it was the start of the school year at the Ninja Academy and the assembled crowd was as big as it always was. Among the throng of students were two fourth year students who had made their way to the posted class lists. One of the girls said to the other, "Hey Ino, do you think we'll be in the same homeroom this year?"

A girl with short blond hair and wearing a purple dress turned to look at her friend. "I don't know Sakura. We were together in first year and third year so hopefully we'll be together for another year." Ino's voice changed to a teasing tone as she looked at her best friend with her short pink hair and sporting a red dress. "After all, as a civilian student you'll need my help to keep your high standing in class. That large forehead of yours might help with all of the bookwork. However, it takes more than smarts to be a great kunoichi like me!"

Ino and Sakura had been friends ever since the two of them had met in on a playground years ago when they were little kids. The two girls' friendship was a bit odd back in first year at the Academy since Ino came from a shinobi clan while Sakura was civilian born. Sakura's father had been part of the shinobi forces, but he had only been an average chunin before enemy poison forced him to take an honorable discharge early in the Third Shinobi War years before she had been born. He had been the first shinobi from his clan and Sakura's mother came from a long line of merchants. This made Sakura a civilian born student, abet one with higher social standing in school since she wasn't a 'pure' civilian student.

There were different expectations and standards expected of shinobi depending on their background in both the Academy and mission results. This wasn't a form of discrimination as the shinobi forces were very meritorious allowing anyone to raise to the rank their skills and abilities could carry them. It was simply general trends that had been observed since the creation of the Hidden Villages. Lowest on this totem pole were the pure civilian background students. The vast majority of those applicants washed out of the Academy and those that did make it into the shinobi forces typically only rose to the rank of chunin. There were a few Jonin from pure civilian backgrounds, but they were rare. This did not mean it was impossible for a shinobi from a pure civilian family to become a legend as Jiraiya of the Sannin showed. It was generally assumed that this trend was due to the fact that these shinobi started off with a relative chakra handicap compared to their compatriots and less focusing on the shinobi arts from their families.

Next on the totem pole came the civilian children who had a ninja or two in the family, especially those with a parent who had been a ninja or a close relative like an aunt or uncle. These students typically got more support for training at home to help with lessons at the Academy. If their mothers had been kunoichis then they usually didn't have a chakra handicap that those with civilian mothers had. It was more common for the shinobi parent in this category to be the father since most kunoichis tended to marry shinobis. Far fewer of these civilian students left the Academy thanks to the support of ninja family member and they were more likely to go further in their ninja careers.

At the top of the totem pole were the students from shinobi families and shinobi clans. In terms of performance expectations and career progress the two groups were identical. Children from shinobi families and shinobi clans typically had a more developed chakra system thanks to their mothers more powerful chakra systems as kunoichis. The children also had the support and early training that the families and clans employed in child rearing which set these kids up to excel as shinobi. It was a good thing too that children of shinobi families and clans generally did well as shinobis since they were pretty much locked into that career path. Family honor and the general need for the shinobi skills to protect themselves from those seeking vengeance over someone a family member had killed on a mission made it extremely difficult for these children to leave the shinobi forces or the regular military. Those few who had left the military life completely typically became trapped inside the village unable to leave for fear of being killed by those wanting vengeance that could get them outside the village's protection.

The difference between a shinobi family and a shinobi clan was one of age and prestige. The shinobi families had been rare in the Warring States Era, but blossomed under the Hidden Village system as shinobi with civilian backgrounds got together and started families. The shinobi clans were the old blood of the shinobi world with the clans having been employed as shinobi longer than most could remember. Of the two shinobi subsets, the families were a distinct minority compared to the clans. This disparity had a simple explanation. Talented shinobi from civilian backgrounds or shinobi families starting out tended to get absorbed into the established shinobi clans via marriage. This tendency was an old one harkening back to the Warring States Era when it wasn't unheard of for shinobi clans to train orphans that had caught a leader's eye for one reason or another and then have the orphan marry into the clan as an adult.

Sakura quickly fired an insult back at Ino unwilling to just back down at the childish jab at her parents. "Like you're one to talk Ino, I consistently scored higher than you last year! Resting on your ancestors' laurels just makes you suited to get roasted. Hope you like the taste of apple in your mouth when they cook you up." Given Ino's name, it was a pretty common insult in the Academy to compare the bossy girl to a roasted pig.

Ino let out an annoyed snort and turned away from Sakura for a moment silently conceding their little verbal spar. After a moment she returned her gaze to board with the posted classrooms and the students in each class. Smiles appeared on both girls faces when they saw their names in the same classroom. They then turned to face each other and grinned at that simple joy.

The pink haired girl then put a finger to her chin and muttered, "I wonder who else will be in our class and if we know them?" Ino joined Sakura with a questioning look on her face and then both girls turned to look at the rest of their class's list. Most of the names were familiar to the girls having had one or two classes with the people that would be sharing their homeroom over the previous three years.

One name stood out to Sakura and she paused when she read it on the list. "Hey Ino, it looks like we have Naruto Uzumaki in our homeroom. Didn't you have him in Advance Stealth last year?" Sakura had never had any classes with Naruto and only occasionally crossed his path in the Academy's hallways. All she knew about the boy was hearsay and she was curious about the only person in homeroom she was completely certain she didn't know.

With a nod of her head the blond haired girl answered her friend. "Yes I did. He's a friendly and confident guy usually with a smile on his face. Always seemed pretty quick on the uptake in class. If Naruto didn't get what we covered in class, which was pretty rare, then he always got it by the time he showed up for the next class session. He didn't rub in how well he was doing which is surprising for a guy and he usually was helping some of the other students in class that were having trouble."

Sakura nodded her head and then the two girls started walking to their classroom. As they rounded the corner Sakura asked, "So did we get the better of the two for homeroom?" Everyone in their year knew about the Uchiha/Uzumaki rivalry. How could they not when the boys had been shifted mid-year so that they weren't in the same classes?

Ino shrugged her shoulders and adjusted her book bag. "It's hard to say on that one Sakura. I had Sasuke as a fellow student in Poisons last year. On the looks scale Sasuke beats Naruto hands down with his bad boy image. Naruto's looks aren't too shabby if you can get past his eyes. There's just something creepy about those blue within blue eyes and how they look like they've seen far too much than they should. However, Naruto is much friendlier, helpful, and cheerier than Sasuke. There's also the fact that Sasuke is too full of pride over his clan, their kekkei genkai, and doesn't tolerate disrespect on those fronts. Rather pathetic given that his parents and most of his clan were nothing more than filthy traitors."

The girls then changed subjects to some of the new articles they had read in a fashion magazine that helped kunoichi modify civilian clothes for combat. This new subject kept the girls talking as they finished their trip to the classroom and occupied their time until the teacher showed up. The homeroom instructor was a chunin named Iruka Umino who hit the ground running with a refresher lecture on using chakra to enhance one's physical abilities and the various limitations that this involved.

* * *

Fourth year seemed to fly by for Naruto and his classmates. Soon enough the two day long final testing was upon them. The first day of testing covered all of the bookwork for the students and was quite exhausting for all of the students. Even Naruto with his seemingly unlimited energy and the ability to stretch time out to think by going into his mindscape was exhausted after the last test was done on the first day. The next day was pure practical testing and the first test on the list for the day was general physical fitness.

Kiba was complaining as the class stood in the drizzle waiting for their tester to show up. "What the hell man? Why are we doing all of these tests in the rain. It was a gorgeous day yesterday when they locked us all inside with the written tests. If only someone had paid attention to the weatherman we could have done the practicals yesterday in good weather instead of in the mud." Several of the other students mumbled in agreement and a couple of the girls started to complain about what the drizzle was doing to their outfits.

Naruto stepped out of line and turned to look at his classmates before speaking up. "Quit complaining about the weather! I joined the Academy to become a shinobi and I thought that all of you did as well. Otherwise, you wouldn't have lasted these past four years here at the Academy. It sucks that we're taking this test in the rain and I wish we had the weather from yesterday. However, being a shinobi means doing a mission even when things don't go your way. No one says to the Hokage, 'I can't take a mission today sir because it's too cold outside or it's raining.' They just buckle down and do the mission. We just get to prove that we can do so too earlier than most ninjas. So what do you say we give all of the previous classes who did these tests in good weather a big middle finger by beating their records with a minor handicap?"

Up on the roof, the Academy headmaster Roshi looked down on the assembled students who were fired up from Naruto's speech. A small grin appeared on Roshi's face through his white beard as he looked at the proceedings. The headmaster turned to look at his two chunin companions and said, "Spirited bunch this year. Letting the weather get to them is not going to work anymore after that speech so you might as well get started on the testing." The two chunin nodded their heads and used the shunshin jutsu to disappear from the rooftop.

One of the chunin appeared in front of the students and said, "Well said student Uzumaki. Now get back in line so that the first practical test can begin." Naruto quickly returned to his place in the group of students and then the chunin continued to speak. "This is a test of your physical fitness to see if you meet one of the basic requirements to be a shinobi. Turn your attention to the Academy's basic PT ground."

Every student did so and noticed the changes in the training ground's setup. There were hurtles of different heights set up at random intervals on the track surrounding most of the training ground. Inside the track course were a series of monkey bars, concrete tubes, paths of buckets and a ten foot wooden wall with several lengths of rope on one side. Everyone noticed that there was enough of each obstacle to match the number of lanes on the track. There was a large ramp near the track with a matching ramp on the other side of the track. Orange cones were then set up from the ramp in a path leading to the Academy's pool with balance beams set up at the half way point. Again, there were enough balance beams for each path to have one beam.

The chunin then spoke up after he gave the students a chance to look at the course. "Your test is as follows. When I call your name up you will get in a lane on the track. Once I say go you will make three laps around the track. You will then immediately proceed to the inner course where you will use the monkey bars for your lane, crawl through the concrete tubes, step through the lane of buckets, and then used the rope to climb up the wall which you will then jump off of to land on the other side. Note that hitting any hurtles on the track, skipping any bar on the monkey bars, or not stepping in any of the buckets for your row will result in a time penalty added onto your final score. After you have landed from the wall, you will run up to the ramp and jump across the gap created by the track lanes to the companion ramp. You will then proceed along the marked lanes to the Academy pool while making sure to cross the length of the balance beam when you come to it. Finally, when you get to the pool you will dive in and swim the length of the pool underwater until you reach the other side and ring the bell set up to indicate you have completed the course. Massive time penalties will be given to anyone who rises to the surface to breathe while swimming and will be noted by my companion who will be recording your unmodified time on the course. Passing this test requires a final time score of 15 minutes or less."

Naruto waited for his turn to come up which was an hour later on the fifth round of testing. He took his place on the track ignoring the fact that he was soaked to the bone and kept focused on what he was about to do. When Naruto was given the signal he took off like a bat out of hell down his course. The other people on the track with him were only given a periphery acknowledgement. Their results did not matter at the moment; what mattered right now was him completing this course correctly and quickly. Naruto made his way through the track course quickly making sure to keep track of his laps while avoiding the hurtles on the track. He then proceeded to the monkey bars where he made sure to grab each bar even though he could do them two at a time. The tube and the buckets came next and they had become filled in mud by this point when Naruto handled those parts of the course. Naruto took three seconds when he got to the wall to remove most of the mud from his sandals before scaling the wall. Naruto knew that there was a hidden time penalty for anyone who used chakra to wall walk up is wall as this was a test of one's physical abilities. It just wasn't talked about since few academy students would know the technique. Those three seconds proved a valuable investment as Naruto quickly got over the wall while his fellow students did not get over the wall so easily.

Jumping over the track on the ramps wasn't a problem for Naruto with the bit of a run he was able to get. He then jumped onto the balance beam taking care not to step where the water had made the beam too slick. Judging from the ground around the balance beam some of the other students who had gone before him hadn't been careful and had fallen off of the beam. Once Naruto got off the balance beam he preceded the rest of the way to the school pool. When he got to the pool he took a deep breath and made a running dive into the pool. Naruto hurriedly swam under the water making sure to keep several inches below the surface to avoid the time penalties. He reached the other end of the pool just as his lungs were starting to complain from holding his breath and quickly rang the bell.

The other Chunin examiner noted Naruto's time on his chart and said, "Get out of the water and head to the locker room. You can change in there and then report to the gymnasium for Taijutsu testing."

* * *

Like most Academy students, Naruto knew how to take a three minute shower and got himself dressed quickly afterwards. Naruto immediately headed from the locker room to the gymnasium with only a minor stop to grab a power bar and energy drink that was set up on a table for the students along the path from the locker room to the gym. As he walked, Naruto ate the power bar and washed it down with the energy drink to replenish what he had lost from the physical fitness test. He threw out the used wrapper and the empty bottle in a trashcan at the gym door before entering it.

Once in the gym, Naruto was sent to the bleachers where earlier takers of the physical fitness test were sitting with the last members of the class that started on the Taijutsu testing. Judging from the time limits on the taijutsu matches, Naruto figured it would be another hour before his taijutsu testing would occur. Then it would be on to Genjutsu testing. After lunch there would be a late lunch/hidden poison recognition test.

Thank you grandfather Keigo for getting that little addition to the practical lineup was Naruto's sarcastic thought about the hidden test. At lunch each student would randomly grab one pre-prepared lunch tray to eat and each tray had a number on it. The number let the lunch personnel, who would be chunins in disguise, know what food item or utensil had been poisoned and what the poison was. None of the poisons used were fatal or caused long lasting problems. However, any student who failed this test by either failing to detect and avoid the poison or failed to identify what they had been poisoned by and get the proper antidote would have an extremely bad time for the rest of the day. Most of the failures of this test would have to finish their practical exams tomorrow in a special makeup session since their poisoning would make them unable to continue the testing today.

Even without Keigo's memories, Naruto could understand the logic behind his grandfather's changes to the poison practical and why it had been changed by Hiruzen. Before Keigo's suggested changeup the poison practical had involved the students simply walking down a line up cups with a few filled with poisons and most filled with colored water. They were supposed to identify which cups had the poisons and what the poisons were. The test never tested the students' abilities in real world situations and was practically the theoretical poison test repeated. This test made sure that the students had absorbed their lessons in a controlled, but still real manner.

The next test on Naruto's class's rotation after lunch was shuriken and kunai usage. In that test they'd have to so competency in throwing the weapons and in maintaining the weapons. Being able to use the weapons wasn't much good if you couldn't keep them in battle ready condition out in the field. After that would be the Ninjutsu test which consisted of Kawarimi, Bunshin, Henge, and an optional extra jutsu for extra credit. The ninjutsu test would be the final test of the day. The extra courses had their last day of class for testing in those courses. Getting everyone tested would be nearly impossible otherwise for scheduling purposes.

Naruto was pulled from his musings when Kiba plopped down on the bench next to him. "Man Naruto, that physical fitness test was brutal. It seemed like something straight out of my sister's threats."

That comment earned the prankster king of the class a chuckle from Naruto. "If that's the case," Naruto started to tease his friend, "then you'd best prepare to be here again next year for the Academy Kiba. After all, aren't you counting on the Practicals to graduate this year?"

Kiba responded to Naruto's teasing by giving the boy the finger. "Shut up Naruto," Kiba eagerly shot back. "I don't have a kekkei genkai like you that lets me recall every boring fact the instructors try to tell us under a minor hypnotic genjutsu. Besides, I also had to spend an additional half hour standing in the mud and the rain before I could take my test. If they just did the tests in alphabetical order you'd be sitting in my place."

"We didn't have the tests in alphabetical order because in real life things are not so organized Kiba. If we did take the tests in alphabetical order then the seating arrangements on the bleachers would be different due to different people choosing when to sit at different times. You'll have to get Shikamaru or Shino to calculate the odds that I would actually be sitting in that spot on the bleachers. I just know that they'd be extremely low. Sakura probably could calculate the odds as well, but I seriously doubt that she'd help you after you turned her hair lime green."

Once Naruto shut Kiba down the duo quieted down and proceeded to observe the other students on the bleachers. Kiba was looking at the girls being tested hoping to see a panty shot. Naruto was looking at the girls as well, but not for the reasons Kiba was looking. Aima Sophia took all of the mystery out of girls for Naruto. They were still as confusing as all hell to Naruto even with the ancestral memories since trying to go in depth with the memories of the opposite gender gave him a massive headache. Naruto had written that off as a side-effect of men and women having different brains. The blond student's interest in his female classmates was over who would graduate and who of those would remain in the shinobi forces. Girls were naturally more flexible and generally had better chakra control then boys at the cost of being physically weaker and typically having lesser chakra reserves. Add in the fact that a lot of girls became enamored with looking beautiful at this age whereas most boys wanted to be awesome fighters and you get the typical two to one gender ratio.

There were a couple of girls that Naruto judged would not be getting their headbands this year. Additionally there were a fair amount of girls who would rate passing the Academy exam, but were unlikely to pass the Jonins' final exam. Who knew which of them would choose to take the remedial training and who would choose to join the reformed police force? Joining the ashigaru wasn't really an option for failed kunoichi unless they wanted to be in a purse support work like supply or field medic.

As Naruto's eyes scanned the girls, his eyes landed on Sakura Haruno and his eyes narrowed slightly. She was one of the girls that Naruto judged had a good probability of passing the Jonins' final. Naruto didn't know too much about her other than the fact that she routinely got good grades in class and came from a civilian background. A look at the girl showed that she was physically cute and had the potential to be become attractive when she grew up. What bugged Naruto about Sakura was the fact that every time he touched her either in a spar or just accidentally bumping into her during school he felt a quick feeling of something. The feeling was faint and disappeared very quickly, but it happened every time they touched. Naruto knew he wasn't feeling a crush thanks to Aima Sophia. He could easily see himself thinking the feeling was a crush if he didn't have his ancestral memories to compare what an actual crush felt like. After another second, Naruto moved his eyes to the next girl and continued his guessing game.

* * *

Hiruzen came to the Ninja Academy the day after the practical finals and headed to the headmaster's office. Inside the office was headmaster Roshi who was wearing a turtle shell while busy at work with a bunch of papers on his desk. A small smirk appeared on Hiruzen's face for a few seconds as he noticed the sweat on his friend's bald head. Having a full head of hair was something the Hokage loved to hold over the headmaster when the friends were in a joking mood.

Roshi piped up as he pulled a book from his shelf into his hand with an invisible chakra string and started to open it. "Yes Hiruzen, I know I'm late in sending in my reports on the latest batch of graduates with the team selections for you to rubberstamp. We happened to have a good crop this year so I'm expecting the daimyo's tithe to rather slim this time." The daimyo's tithe was polite way to refer to those who passed the Academy test and ended up joining the ashigaru.

Hiruzen pulled out his pipe and asked, "If the tithe is small then what is the issue? I know that this was year had the highest graduating percentage in a decade. However, I don't see why the additional paperwork would cause you to be researching this heavily."

The headmaster put the reference book down and shot his boss a nasty glare. He then shot back, "Don't tell me you forgot about Team Composition Directive 13 that you issued three months ago? I agree that specializing our genin teams too much is dangerous, but it means that I've had to create new plans out of whole cloth instead of recycling the old patterns. That leads me to my issue with Team Composition Directive 1 and the headache that the Uchiha and the Uzumaki created for me!"

The Hokage raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why would either Naruto or Sasuke being the Rookie of the Year create a major issue? They've probably got different strengths, but at their level of development it would not make much of an issue for the team composition. Besides, it's not like that title actually means anything after the kids graduate." During the rare break times in the office Hiruzen would use his globe to observe the students in the Academy. It was relaxing to see the next generation hard at work learning and it let him be somewhat aware of his future subordinates.

Sasuke and Naruto took their training seriously and were in the top bracket of both skill and conditioning for their age group. Hiruzen was fairly confident that either boy would be able to kill a full grown bandit or a small group of bandits without much issue. Any concerns about the boys freezing in combat would be put aside once they handled the final initiation into being a ninja which happened a month after the Jonin's final testing of the genins to be. The final initiation simply involved the new genins each executing a condemned criminal that was shipped to Konoha from the daimyo's gallows. Failing to complete the final initiation wouldn't result in a genin being kicked out of the shinobi force. However, the genin in question wouldn't be allowed to advance past D rank missions and support work inside the village until he or she proved that they wouldn't freeze up in possible life or death situations. Given Sasuke's experience with the Uchiha Purge and Naruto's extra memories, Hiruzen figured that both boys wouldn't have a real problem with the final initiation.

Roshi quickly explained to his commander and friend. "Those two are the most driven students this year and they are within a hairs breath of each other in terms of academy rankings. In their actual abilities I have to personally rate Naruto as the better ninja. Sasuke's extremely good, but he also played the Academy's ranking system a bit. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke only took two extra courses knowing that we only use the third course's grades possibly replace the scores of the class they scored the lowest in. It's there to give one extra skills as a genin, but it's unfair from a grading perspective for the better students to have a chance to get further ahead in their GPAs. Naruto focused on using the Academy to learning the most skills he could to help him in his later career."

"Furthermore, the question of which one of them deserves the title of Rookie of the Year is coming down to a ruling I need to make on the boy's ninjutsu tests. Sasuke did the basic three jutsus flawlessly and executed a wonderful Goukakyuu jutsu. Naruto preformed the basic three jutsu substituting the Kage bunshin in place of the regular bunshin without any of the examiners noticing. It's kind of pathetic that none of the instructors here have caught on to Naruto's little ruse. For his extra jutsu, Naruto demonstrated his own creation of the Kusa Senbon jutsu. It's a very innovative and simple jutsu that lets Naruto temporarily give blades of grass the strength and hardness of steel senbon. The Kusa Senbon jutsu ends about twenty seconds after the blades of grass leave Naruto's hands."

Hiruzen stroke his beard as he listened to Roshi's dilemma. "That's quite a conundrum that you have on your hands Roshi. Naruto's jutsu sounds extremely useful and practical, but from your description I would have to rate it as a D rank jutsu."

Roshi nodded his head, "I think you see my dilemma. On the one hand I have a talented student who was able to flawlessly execute a C rank jutsu that is beyond the grasp of most of his peer group at this time. On the other hand I've got a student that was actually able to hide, really hide and not just have the chunins humor him, a B rank jutsu as an E rank jutsu and create his own jutsu. The Academy rules don't say anything about a student inventing their own jutsu because usually don't start on jutsu creation until their Jonins! By the book Sasuke should get the award, but Naruto obviously has the edge over Sasuke if he was able to do just one of the things he pulled on the test. I'm at my wits end on this issue and almost at the point of joining my taijutsu happy nephew in running around the village on my hands just to get away from it!"

This was serious indeed as it was well known among the older generation that Roshi did not like the fact that his sister had married Dai Maito and found his nephew Gai to be very annoying. It didn't stop Roshi from asking Gui to sign the turtle contract. Hiruzen then decided to help his friend make his decision. "If Sasuke should have the title according to current regulations then he should get the title Rookie of the Year. However, I think Naruto should quietly be given an award for discovering points in the Academy's grading criteria that need to be revised along with showing where a few of the instructors have gotten lax in their training. Since there is no title for such an award, why don't we stick with a simple cash reward? That extra 700,000 ryo in the school budget that the instructors were asking to use to renovate the teachers' lounge should do in my mind."

Roshi chucked and replied, "That sound good in my book Hiruzen. 700,000 ryo is a good chuck of change, but not absurd, for a genin to earn on some good missions. Besides, if a student can honestly pull one over on a chunin instructor then the instructor is obviously too lax in their own training to rate extra luxuries."

* * *

Author's notes:

Happy Christmas readers, for those of you who are still confused about my comments from last chapter about younger ninjas and why I nerfed Itachi let me re-explain it. Some of you posted comments about how chakra changes everything from the analogy I used on pure physical abilities. Chakra does change things when your opponent doesn't also have access to chakra. Thus, it is not a problem for a new genin to be able to slay your typical bandit who just has some weapons training and non-chakra training. If a genin were to fight an adult ninja or even an ashigaru (regular soldiers) who have chakra, we're right back to the situation of a pre-teen trying to win a fight against a reasonable fit adult. Most of the time the poor kid is just going to get his or her ass handed to them on a silver platter.

Now, let me answer some questions that you will no doubt have from this chapter. Most of the Academy exam was my own creation. In the series, we're told that the test is answering some questions and preforming three jutsus. That seems kind of hard to believe, even with the Jonins having their own test, as a valid test for people who are supposed to be trained as semi-mercenary Special Forces. I also added some darker twists with the poison test and the final initiation. While not suited for a shonen manga, I felt that these changes were appropriate for a setting in which pre-teens are expected to be a nation's warriors. You don't want your guards to be taken out by a simple poison. You also don't want a significant percentage, 25% of a genin team if just one member has problems, freezing due to an enemy attack or making their first kill opening up the opportunity to kill them in turn. The poison test and having the genin take the executioner's place allows Konoha to test and help the new ninja through these situations in a controlled manner. It's ruthless, but it is a way to make a condemned man's death have some use and isn't that different than using a condemned criminal to rate the cutting ability of a blade. Samurai actually rated swords by how many men they could cut through with a single strike using condemned men in real life.

On to some other points that people will likely raise. I used the romanji version of Gai's name instead of the more popular Might Guy version. I just find it annoying to use one convention for almost everyone's name and then have a person break it. This is especially true since I've been using the western convention of first name and last name to go with the character's name and using romanji since everyone else's name isn't shifted in the translation from Japanese to English. So in this story I'm referring to this guy as Gai Maito. Thank you Quathis for catching a mistake on my part due to lack of sleep.

On the issue of Sasuke, let me be clear on a few things. He doesn't have a horde of fangirls since being the son of two traitors from a disgraced clan is a major turn off. He is a very talented and driven young student. Kakashi commented in the series that most genins wouldn't be able to pull off a jutsu like the Goukakyuu at Sasuke's age when he gave the bell test. Unlike the series, this Sasuke has the source of his frustrations and anger close at hand and a way to show Naruto up with the title of Rookie of the Year. So Sasuke worked hard to prove he was best ninja by the Academy standards whereas Naruto worked hard to build up the skills he knew he would need in the future. Similar results at this level, but the differences will start to show for the different methods.

Naruto was able to fool the Academy instructors because they were looking for a regular bunshin and Naruto made his kage bunshin look like a regular bunshin enough to not create suspicions. The vast majority of all attempts by students to hide their abilities, if they wish to try, don't work because the chunins know all the tricks that the students are going to think up. Roshi knew it would be difficult for someone like Naruto to create a regular bunshin and thus could spot the signs that the chunins missed. As a result, the instructors are losing the equivalent of 7,000 dollars, I'm using 100 ryo = 1 dollar, that would have gone to new amenities in their lounge.


	5. Chapter 5

The following Monday after graduation, all of those who passed the Academy test came back to the Ninja Academy to be assigned to their genin squads. Naruto was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with an orange zipper and dark orange long pants. There was a red ring of fabric on the left arm of Naruto's shirt that hid several seals containing different supplies. On Naruto's right leg was a kunai and shuriken pouch position to be in easy reach for him. His shirt had the Uzumaki swirl on the back in a prominent manner and this was partly obscured by the ninjato strapped to his back. Thanks to the loose manner he was wearing his shirt, Naruto' belt with its hidden lock pick set, ninja wire, and seals with additional supplies was obscured from sight. The belt itself was a special order belt from a ninja store and was rated to double as a garrote even if an enemy used rank C chakra enhanced strength according to the taijutsu assessment scale to try and break the belt. Finishing Naruto's outfit was his headband proudly worn on his forehead.

Once Naruto got to the Academy, he headed to the gymnasium with the rest of his fellow students. The number of graduates this year was large enough that they couldn't fit everyone in a single classroom; not even a classroom for the first year students. Naruto was one of the early birds and headed for one of bleachers in the back that were set up for the students. He then spent the next fifteen minutes watching as the rest of the graduates made their way to the gym. Most were very familiar to Naruto as either friends or people he had been in several classes with. A few others were only vaguely familiar to Naruto as acquaintances he only passed in the hallway from time to time.

Naruto could see why the graduation was held in the gym when the 84th graduate entered the room followed shortly afterwards by Headmaster Roshi. With 28 possible new genin teams Konoha would be getting a rather large infusion of new ninjas even if only half of the teams passed the Jonins' final test. Naruto knew that odds of such a low rate of final genin were very low. It was a popular prank among Jonins to tell their new teams that each only had a 33 percent chance of succeeding on the final. Since the tests were only ever passed as a team, three separate 33 percent odds added together gave the team a 99 percent chance of passing. On average, 70 to 80 percent of the academy graduates would pass the Jonins final test of teamwork. From what Naruto could remember, the highest percentage of a class to pass the Jonins' test was three years before Minato became a Jonin instructor with the record of 96 percent. The lowest ever was a 53 percent back during the latter half of the Shodai's reign. That low graduation rate was partially due to sabotage on the part of one of the Academy Instructors. Hashirama sentenced that saboteur to 400 lashes in public over a five day period.

Roshi took the set up stage facing the bleachers and spoke at his former students while politely ignoring the stares of those who didn't know that the headmaster liked to wear a turtle shell shaped weight on his back. "Congratulations on graduating my former students. Regrettably, there are far fewer of you here than there were back when you all started at this fine institution four years ago. The path of the shinobi is not an easy or forgiving path for those who choose to walk it. This profession of ours involves pain, suffering, sweet, and blood while offering us only the next mission as a reward for success."

"Look around you to the people sitting on the bleachers with you. These are some of your brothers and sisters in arms. Any issues or complaints that you had against anyone in this room while you were studying in the Academy will be left here in the Academy for all time. The only thing that is standing between you and a new career as urn fillings in your family shrine are the other shinobi on the force. In a minute I will be letting you know who your fellow genin teammates are and I can guarantee that all of your teammates are here in this room. These are the people who you will be counting on to watch your back in a fight or on patrol just as they will be counting on you to do the same for them."

"Remember your training and make sure to keep it up! Your training is the greatest weapon in your arsenal and the second best thing to insure you stay alive out in the field besides your teammates' help. Always add to your abilities and practice them when you get the chance. A shinobi is like good steel, adding multiple skills together like a smith does metals until a powerful warrior is created by the shinobi just like smith forges the alloy steel. A shinobi also understands his limits and doesn't puff himself up with pretentious pride. Sasuke Uchiha, as the Rookie of the Year for this promising batch of graduates, this upcoming warning is especially true for you even though it applies to everyone in this room. Far too many genins have had promising careers cut short because they bit off more than they could chew due to their pride and are now permanent fixtures of their family shrines. You are no longer the top class of the Academy. As of this day you are simply new genins at the very start of your career. Everyone on the force who is not currently sitting on a bleacher in this room is your superior in experience and likely rank as well. Use this fact to help keep your pride and tempers in check or an enemy will kill you when you leave the village on a mission."

After that chilling note, Roshi began to read off the teams and who the Jonin senseis would be. Naruto caught onto this year's composition pattern once he heard several names that he recognized well. The teams were set up with a heavy hitter, a support member, and a tracker. Naruto gave Roshi full attention when the headmaster called out, "Team 10 is composed of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Hurano, and Kiba Inuzuka with Fuka Asakawa as the Jonin instructor. You will be meeting your instructor in class room 312."

Once Roshi finished calling out the instructors he dismissed the new genin to meet their new instructors. There was an immediate rush for the gym door by most of the students. Naruto decided to avoid the crowd which was on the verge of triggering a fistfight by walking up the wall of the gym and squeezing through a ventilation window to leave. Roshi was the only one to notice Naruto's means of leaving the room bringing a small smile to the headmasters' face.

* * *

Kiba with Akamaru resting on his head ran up the stairs to the third level of the school with a grin on his face. There was a big grin on Kiba's face as he said, "Oh yes Akamaru. We're going to be the first ones to meet our new sensei just like we're going to be leaders of our new team!" Akamaru barked in agreement as Kiba grabbed the doorknob for room 312. Kiba opened the door as Sakura appeared in the stairwell causing the rambunctious boy to call out, "First one in the room is the best shinobi on the team!" He then turned his head to look in the room and step inside. However, Kiba's eyes bulged out in shock when he saw what was inside.

Naruto was sitting in the instructor's chair with his feet up on the desk in a lazy manner. Furthermore, Naruto had created half a dozen kage bunshins and had them henged into amazingly beautiful female models wearing different designer bikinis. Two clones were fanning Naruto with exotic feathered fans. On was behind Naruto looking like she was rubbing his shoulders One was on the other side of the desk preforming a slow dance on one of the student desks. The last two were standing on either side of Naruto with one apparently holding a bowl full of grapes while the other was serving a martini.

In a lazy manner, Naruto looked at Kiba and said, "You were right Kiba. The first shinobi to be in this room is the best genin on the team. Thank you for recognizing my magnificence and you will be ecstatic to know that life on the top is good. Oh Sakura, thank you joining us as well." Naruto looked at his clones and said, "My teammates have arrived ladies which unfortunately means that our time together is at an end."

All of the bunshins let out sigh of sadness as one. The bunshin that was seemingly holding the bowl of grapes put the bowl down on the teacher's desk and clapped her hands. This bunshin then said in a commanding voice, "You heard the master ladies. Reverse summon yourself to the mansion at once!" The other bunshins dispersed themselves one by one until the former holder of the bowl was left. This bunshin bowed her head and said, "Until we can serve you again Master Naruto." It then dispersed itself along with the bowl of grapes on the table.

Naruto got his feet off of the desk and smirked at his gob smacked teammates. He then started to chuckle and said, "If only you two could see your faces right at this moment. I mean seriously, I just used a couple of henged bunshins and you two are completely shocked into silence. Any of us could have done this back in third year given that we learned this jutsus back in second year." Preforming a combo with a regular bunshin and the henge jutsu was possible for an Academy student. It just would take a lot of practice that most students wouldn't put in to work just those two jutsus together. Since Naruto used kage bunshins who then used henge it actually wasn't a combo in the traditional sense.

The sound of senbon flying through the air caused Naruto to drop to the ground while yelling, "Get Down!" He rapidly pulled out a shuriken and threw it in the general direction of the incoming senbon before he leapt behind a desk. Naruto pulled a desk down to form a barrier and grabbed a fist full of kunais. His eyes instantly darted to Kiba and Sakura to check on their status. All it took was a split second for him to verify that they had heard his warning and had ducked for cover on the other side of the classroom door. Naruto's eyes then looked for the shuriken he had thrown and saw it near the window where there was a very faint distortion.

All three genins then heard the sound of clapping being thrown throughout the room. A joyful and slightly sultry voice then called out from seemingly everywhere. "Very good reactions you three. The Academy instructors didn't mess up in that aspect of your training." A genjutsu ended to reveal an incredibly beautiful woman with long burnt red hair wearing a tight fitting and somewhat scanty outfit that highlighted her natural charms. The woman ended her clapping and then pointed to the shuriken that was three inches from her head. "Bit off in your aim Naruto. You did well for a genin aiming just by sound. However, I still would have been free to kill you if I was an enemy ninja instead of your Jonin instructor. I also could have killed you long before Kiba or Sakura showed up because you never detected me hiding my presence with a genjutsu."

The jonin turned to look at the duo hiding behind the classroom door and took a step towards them. "Both of you left yourselves wide open to an enemy attack because you fell for Naruto's prank. That should never happen as a ninja. A simple application of genjutsu," there was a split second pause as Fuka activated a genjutsu on the trio. All three genins were shocked as Fuka's clothes appeared to fade away into smoke. Bits of the smoke started to circle around Fuka's naked and sweaty form barely protecting her modesty. Fuka walked through the smoke fully revealing herself to her three students as she continued to speak. "Can allow a shinobi to show anything to an enemy that they wish to show."

Kiba wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to what Fuka was saying. All he could think about was the sight before him that put the centerfold he had once seen in a stolen porno magazine to complete shame. Sakura was staring at her sensei in complete shock that a kunoichi would expose herself in such a brazen manner. Naruto knew that Fuka must be casting a genjutsu and that he should be breaking it. However, something about Fuka was just so enthralling that he couldn't bring himself to end the glorious sight before him. Naruto was able to keep enough wits about him to keep his kunais in his hand and hiding the fact as best he could that he was ready to throw those kunais at Fuka's back at a moment's notice.

Fuka gave a sultry smirk as she continued, "The enemy will only see one thing until they are dead." She ended her sentence in a much more hostile tone. Fuka also canceled her genjutsu to reveal that she was fully clothed and holding a kunai in each hand against Kiba's and Sakura's necks. Fuka pressed against the duo's necks just hard enough to draw a drop of blood on each kunai before jumping behind Naruto. She immediately put a fresh kunai to Naruto's back and said, "Tell me Naruto. Why shouldn't I just cut you now and declare all three of you failures? You have five seconds before I draw your blood and you all fail my test."

Naruto responded by using a kawarimi with the teacher's chair to appear behind the teacher's desk. He then called out, "Regulation 37, paragraph 4 of the Jonin instructor rules states that no Jonin test of potential genin may begin without informing the potential genin of their status, the test conditions, test requirements, or at least 2 hours of notified prior prep time for the potential genins. You have not told us about your test, its conditions, or the prep time. Thus, you cannot fail us just yet even if you were to draw my blood."

Both Sakura and Kiba looked at Naruto in surprise not knowing what he was talking about or what regulations he was talking about. They then turned to face Fuka who was chuckling. "I have a special dispensation from the Hokage on that regulation Naruto. After all, the normal test doesn't take into consideration a student with a kekkei genkai that grants him the genetic memories of five highly elite ninjas no does it? You very easily could have told everyone in the class about the Jonins' test to truly determine who goes on to become genin."

Naruto stood with his back against the wall and he discreetly put a kunai in his offhand with the point aimed at the wall. He kept his nervousness from showing and stated as confidently as he could. "You all would know if I told a soul. It would have been impossible for me to pass along that information discreetly in four days to all 84 graduates. Especially since I live at the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex where it would have been very suspicious for me to leave after graduation with the basic training ground provided on campus. Someone would have undoubtedly discovered such an information leak days ago and I would be summoned for breaking shinobi secrets. Grandfather Hokage declared years ago that anyone with an active Aima Sophia is bound to keep any and all shinobi secrets their genetic memories inform them about to the same level of a registered shinobi. That means that I'd suffer the same punishments as any ninja for breaking a shinobi secret. The Jonins' final of the genin is a class D secret."

Both Kiba and Sakura gasped in shocked when they heard that news. Sakura blurted out, "Revealing a class D secret carries a 500,000 ryo fine and 40 lash penalty with an additional 50,000 ryo and 10 lashes for every person the secret is revealed to by the guilty person!"

Fuka nodded her head and continued on, "Such a penalty for Naruto if he did reveal this information to everyone would land him with a 4,700,000 ryo fine and 880 lashes with a whip like this one in my hand." Fuka then revealed a cat-o-nine-tails with half a dozen rusty and jagged nails tied onto each tail. Kiba and Sakura both paled at the sight of the diabolical looking whip. They had never seen a punishment whip before and had thought that the whips mentioned their textbooks for certain punishments were the whips used to get animals to move. The thought of getting one of those whips used on them for breaking certain rules had been the stuff of nightmares for the two former students. Now those nightmares looked like pleasant daydreams compared to the image the demonic thing in Fuka's hand was giving them.

Naruto shivered slightly at the sight of a kyuubi whip. His ancestors had never had to suffer from one of those things and they only had to sparingly use it for punishments of criminal shinobi. Thanks to Aima Sophia Naruto knew that those things were coated in a special minor poison that heightened the pain one would feel from a lash. Given how well medical jutsus could heal someone there wouldn't be any muscle damage or even scars from the whipping after a few weeks. The doctors' healing abilities were why the lashings were made so agonizing. If the pain wasn't agonizing then a shinobi would soon forget about it since you had to develop a high pain tolerance to be a successful shinobi.

Fuka tapped the kyuubi whip with a finger and said, "As I said the Hokage gave me a special dispensation because of Naruto's kekkei genkai to insure that his team's test is on the level just like every other team. Naruto is a good academy student who didn't become Rookie of the Year only because of an unexpected oversight in the Academy's grading matrix that has been corrected for the future. It is well within the realm of possibility that he could have slipped you two a message between the time of the team announcements and your arrival in this room. This puts me in the position of possibly testing you when you already know how to beat the test without actually having what you need to truly beat the test."

The jonin paused a second for dramatic effect and said, "I think I'll be generous and cut you all a deal. If Naruto agrees to receive 60 lashes for the suspicion that he could have spoiled the test and he doesn't reveal what the test is supposed to be about during the flogging I will let you all be tested in the regular manner. However, your two hour time limit for prep will occur after the whipping and then the test will begin for the three of you."

Naruto gulped in shock at that announcement. Even with his healing, 60 lashes from a kyuubi whip would put him down for the rest of the day. Hell, he'd have to be patched up and taken to see a doctor to help heal. He'd also have to wait until after Fuka's test was passed to go to the doctor or all three of them would flunked.

Kiba blurted out, "Why the hell should Naruto accept such a deal when he's done nothing wrong? 60 lashes with that monstrosity will send him the ER!"

Fuka turned to Kiba and rebutted, "If Naruto goes to the ER after his flogging but before the test is passed everyone fails. Life is not fair and its time all of you accepted that fact. You and Sakura can field dress him to insure he doesn't die of blood loss. There will be times you'll have to complete a mission with a wounded comrade if you three actually join the shinobi forces."

Naruto put his kunais away and calmly said, "I'll do it. I'll take the 60 lashes if you'll honor your offer with your word as a sworn shinobi of Konoha to stick to the regular regulations for testing prospective genin."

The jonin politely nodded her head and said, "I swear Naruto Uzumaki that if you make it through all 60 lashes I will honor my agreement and test you three according to the regular regulations. Now, let's head to the courtyard. One of the throwing posts will do very well in place of a regular whipping post."

"Wait." Everyone turned to face Sakura who had quietly spoken up. The young kunoichi to be was obviously trying to keep her courage up as her body was trembling slightly. Sakura turned to look Fuka in the eyes and nervously spoke. "I'll take half of those lashes since I'm under suspicion of possessing knowledge that I shouldn't have had." Inner Sakura was screaming that she was utterly crazy for making this offer. However, Sakura doubted that she could pass whatever test this powerful and ruthless kunoichi could throw at them if her strongest teammate was completely out of action.

Kiba then cut in, "Just give Sakura and Naruto 20 lashes each and I'll take the final twenty. I'm also a member of this team so part of the suspicion falls on me as well." Kiba was also thinking he was kind of crazy making an offer like this. However, he was hoping that the two hour prep time would give the three of them enough time to be patched up enough to succeed at Fuka's test. Having two badly wounded team members or one needing to go to the ER wouldn't allow them to pass. Kiba's mother and sister that the only way one could succeed on a mission was by working with one's teammates. Headmaster Roshi also had hammered that point home in his farewell speech.

Fuka nodded her head and said, "Very well then. Kiba's modification to my deal is accepted. However, now all of you will fail if any of you backs out of this deal. Now follow me to the training posts. Any delays will be seen as you attempted to back out the deal." As Fuka walked out of the classroom she made sure to keep the kyuubi whip in easy view of the trio who followed after her looking like condemned men. Each step through the formerly happy halls of the Academy filled the prospective genins with nervousness and fear that they had made a terrible choice.

* * *

Once outside the Academy building, Fuka led the trio to shuriken posts and had each member of the trio stand in front of a post. Fuka then ordered in a commanding voice, "Team discipline is about to commence. Remove all clothing covering your backs and stand in front of the shuriken posts with your arms wrapped around the posts. Sakura, all clothing includes a training bra if you are wearing one. You all have one minute to remove the items of clothing mentioned before you will be deemed to be reneging on your deal with me starting now."

Naruto took off his ninjato followed by his shirt. He then grabbed the shuriken post like he was instructed with his bare back to Fuka. Kiba put Akamaru down on the ground and started to take off his upper clothing. Sakura waited a second, but quickly followed orders once she saw that Kiba and Naruto weren't looking at her. All three potential genin were ready for their lashings before the time limit.

Fuka uncoiled the kyuubi whip and gave it a test strike on the ground. All three prospective genins flinched at the sound of the whip, but they kept their hands wrapped around the posts. Fuka then said in her commanding tone adding a touch of killing intent to her words to really make the trio sweat. "This team of potential genin has been found under suspicion of breaking a class D shinobi secret earning the primary subject of suspicion 60 lashes. Upon teammates' request, the sentence has been split among all three members. This disciplinary punishment is to be carried out on a cold day in hell."

Naruto, Kiba, and Sakura all blinked when they felt the killing intent vanish while their fear and dread was cut in half. Kiba nervously piped up, "What was that sensei?"

Fuka sealed away the kyuubi whip and jumped behind the shuriken pots so the trio could see her. There was a much friendlier look on her face as she spoke in a soft and kind manner. "There will be no punishment for the three of you. There will also be no Jonin's test according to the normal regulations like I promised as I never gave Naruto the 60 lashes. You three passed my test. Now put on your clothes and sit by me so I can explain things in more detail."

The trio quickly got their clothes back on and then sat in a circle around Fuka on the throwing grounds. Once Sakura, who was the last to get dress due to making sure that Kiba and Naruto couldn't see anything naughty, sat down Fuka began to speak. "The Ninja Academy gives you all the skills you need to start your careers off as shinobi. However, the Academy cannot really test you all for teamwork, critical thinking, self-sacrifice, and willingness to face danger like you'll need to be able to do in order to succeed on dangerous missions. That is where the Jonins' final comes in to test to see if you all have enough of these qualities right now to become genin."

The kunoichi unsealed a tea set and poured all four of them a glass of tea. She then politely said with a refined air, "Drink this. It's a special blend that helps to calm one down and all of you will need it after passing that final." Fuka took a small sip first of the tea before her student's followed her example. She then put her cup down and continued her lecture. "Naruto with his kekkei genkai is a snag to the normal Jonin final as he knows what is being tested and what needs to be shown in order to pass. The Hokage felt that there was too great of a chance that any team he was on would work towards the test instead of genuinely being able to pass it. Oh don't make that face Naruto. None of us thought you'd spill the beans on the test beforehand. However, you could give too many hints during the test and you'd be actively working to insure that everyone passed the test knowing what is required. This would normally be a good thing for a ninja since in our profession we need to seize any advantage that we can give ourselves."

"But, this test is an exception as if you don't have these abilities to a certain level you could cause a catastrophe on a mission that would probably result in someone's death. So the Hokage decided that you three couldn't have the prep time or even be told what your test was; especially so that Naruto could be tested without realizing he was being tested. Trust me when I say that it wasn't easy to come up with this test for you three. I spent almost a month crafting it."

Sakura spoke up after finishing her tea. "Could you explain the test for me sensei and how we demonstrated those skills? I want to make sure I fully understood everything about the test." Inside her head, Inner Sakura was ranting that she didn't understand a single thing about Fuka's test.

Fuka nodded her head and quietly refilled Sakura's tea cup. "Certainly Sakura, since all of you are now my genin students I'm free to discuss the test. My test focuses on teamwork, self-sacrifice, and especially willingness to face danger. Critical thinking is involved in it, but it is not a focus of the test as I find it to be the easiest trait of the four to drill into genins. Now to explain things by the numbers, your teamwork was tested by whether or not you all were willing to make a sacrifice in order to insure that the team got a fair chance to be tested. Naruto demonstrated this by agreeing to the blatantly unfair punishment while you and Kiba demonstrated this by being willing to take part of the punishment on yourselves. This directly feeds into the self-sacrifice part of the test as anyone can see that a kyuubi whip can inflict absolutely horrendous amounts of damage. I also placed a minor genjutsu on the three of you that enhanced your feelings of fear and dread at the sight of the whip. Your willingness to face danger was tested by the three of you following me here and standing at the posts ready to endure a flogging. It's easy to say you'll make a sacrifice for others, but it's an entirely different thing to actually make the sacrifice."

Naruto then asked, "What about the critical thinking? Was it me realizing that having two teammates face a mission that they know about was better than me facing a mission I didn't have much information about?"

The kunoichi nodded her head as she answered her student, "For your part yes Naruto. Sakura and then Kiba demonstrated their critical thinking by realizing that having a team member down in critical condition would almost assure them of failure. So they did the only rational choice they could make in the circumstances they were in and tried to reduce the burden you would have had to deal with."

Fuka checked to see that her students had finished their tea and resealed the tea set away. She then stood up and said, "As I said, we are officially genin team 10. From now on we will be meeting six days a week at 8 am on training ground 10. Our team schedule will be as follows. From 8 until noon we will have a warmup and light practice. 12 to 12:20 will be a quick team lunch. After lunch our schedule will be a bit more varied. We will be alternating between doing D rank missions one day and heavier practice the next day during the afternoon. Our daily practice will end at 6 pm or when you have completed all of your assigned tasks for the day. It will be the later of the two that determines when you get off and not the earlier of the two so keep this fact in mind. The seventh day of the week will be your day off to relax and have fun. Don't even think about training or studying on this day because you need the break to avoid burnout or injury. Now do you have any questions?"

The trio was silent for a moment and then Kiba pipped up, "Was that genjutsu really how you look naked?" Sakura quickly smacked Kiba on the back of head for that comment. "Ouch, what the hell was that for Sakura?" Kiba asked while rubbing the back of his head.

A tick mark appeared on Sakura's forehead. She then angrily said, "Do you even have to ask why I hit you Kiba? What on earth would possess you to ask sensei a question like that?"

Fuka started to chuckle drawing all of her students' attention. She shook her head slightly and said, "The answer to your question is obvious Sakura. Kiba here is simply a young boy on the verge of becoming a teenager and unable to deal with all of the hormones his body is producing. Genjutsu is not my forte like ninjutsu, but a relatively simple one like I used before cutting you two is within my abilities. Yes Kiba, that is how I look without any clothes on and you shouldn't be shocked at all about it Sakura. My sexy figure is simply another weapon for me to use. So what if enemies see my glorious and desirable form? Their lust will paralyze them and then a simple cut allows me to collect the viewing fee of their lives. Or if I so choose, I can drain all of the chakra from their bodies with a single fatal kiss."

Both Naruto and Kiba let out small shivers of fear when they heard Fuka state that. Kiba became really afraid of Fuka deciding to collect the viewing fee from him. Naruto was nervous because Fuka was throwing off his normal expectations. He was pretty sure that his father would have known where her skills were over a decade ago as Hokage, but he hadn't called up those memories. Chunins and Jonins typically focused their skills into different basic types that could be identified. These types were useful for helping to assign shinobi to a mission and using a traditional build insured that one could get training from others specializing in the same manner. Fuka was throwing Naruto off because she was showing the signs of a seductress kunoichi, and the ninjutsu was at odds with that build. Seductress kunoichi typically favored genjutsu or poison as means to attack so they could get in, remove their target, and get out without causing a commotion. Ninjutsu was typically loud, obvious, and announced that one was a ninja. It was great for an assault or heavy support build where fighting power was paramount, but typically terrible for mission involving stealth.

Fuka then said, "I need to be off to inform the Hokage about our team becoming official. You three have the rest of the day off and I suggest that you enjoy it. You're not getting another day off until next Monday." Fuka then vanished in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

Authors note: I was not expecting to get another chapter out before 2016. However, the inspiration fairy hit me on Christmas so you all get this late Christmas present from me. Fuka is the kunoichi that was part of the grave robbers in the Naruto Shippuden anime filler. Considering that she's listed on the Naruto wiki as being a citizen of the Land of Fire and the group's goal I figured it would be reasonable to assume that she had some sort of background as a Konoha ninja. She hasn't broken away from Konoha because whatever happened to have her disillusioned with the position of Hokage didn't in this story. Consider it a minor butterfly flap. That's the Watsonian explanation whereas the Doylist reason is simply that I wanted Naruto to have a strong female sensei and I didn't want to use the standard Kurenai, Anko, or to a lesser extent Yuugao.

For those of you with issues on me adding the flogging for punishment in Konoha's criminal justice code, it is perfectly believable in a semi feudal setting like Kishimoto shows in Naruto. It's not pretty, but it is believable. Also, there would be less of an incentive for a society like Naruto's to end corporal punishments given all of the amazing abilities the medic ninjas can pull off. Think for a moment how many permanently crippling injuries the medics are able to take care of in the manga and anime letting the ninja suffering those injuries return to active duty. To the ninjas, punishment like flogging would be a day or two of agony and then the medics patch you up good as new with the knowledge that you don't want to mess up like that again. Also, our own use of this form of punishment isn't as far in the past as you might think. The last prison flogging in the UK happened in 1962 and corporal punishment for prisoners in the UK wasn't abolished until 1967. In the US, the last judicial flogging was in 1952 against a wife beater and the last state to remove flogging from the criminal code didn't do so until 1972. I detest this manner of punishment myself and I wish that it was completely banned around the world. But, I'm man enough to recognize that just because I detest a practice does not make it any more likely or not to be practiced by different cultures.


	6. Chapter 6

Fuka walked into the Hokage's Tower and quickly made her way the Hokage's office where Hiruzen was sitting behind his desk talking with Kakashi. The duo's conversation came to end when Fuka walked in and bowed her head to the Hokage. She then formally said, "Jonin Fuka Asakawa reporting in from testing prospective genin Team 10. Genin hopefuls Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Hurano, and Kiba Inuzuka passed the previously submitted test plan for Team 10 by passing the first test. The makeup test was not needed. I hereby declare their application into the Shinobi Forces accepted and their shinobi profiles to be on active status."

Hiruzen nodded his head and said, "Understood Jonin Asakawa. As of this moment, Team 10 is now an official team within the regular Shinobi Forces. You are Team 10's commander and will remain as such until either all three genins on your team become chunin or your services are needed elsewhere on a more permanent basis. Their training is in your hands their Jonin Instructor. May you insure through your training that they become strong members of the Shinobi Forces."

With the ritualized activation of a new genin team out of the way, Fuka spoke. "My team's training will begin tomorrow following the basic training plan I submitted with my request to command a genin team. Modifications to the plan will be made as the trio's progress requires and will be filed in my monthly reports. Are there any further instructions or inquires you have for my team? If not, I would like to leave so I can file my initial report on the team."

A pained look appeared on Hiruzen's face for a split second before he hardened behind his Hokage face. He then said, "There is one extra order that you'll have to follow Jonin Asakawa if it becomes necessary. You are hereby removed from the general Suzaku Directive and placed on permanent standby for a specific Suzaku Directive with regards to genin Naruto Uzumaki. This change in your directives will remain in effect until you no longer qualify for the Suzaku Directive, you are reassigned to another team, Naruto Uzumaki is reassigned to another team, or it is no longer necessary for Naruto Uzumaki to be placed under the Suzaku Directive. Is that understood?"

Fuka gave a quick nod of her head showing her understanding. She had been expecting this modification in her Suzaku Directive ever since she found out that Naruto would be one of her potential students. Anything else wouldn't make since given that the team had one confirmed carrier of a useful kekkei genkai and a kunoichi currently under that directive. The thought of the order didn't bother Fuka because the directive would only activate if she massively screwed up training Team 10 allowing them to get into danger. So it wouldn't be an issue as long as she did her job like she was supposed to do.

Just as Fuka was about to ask if there was anything more, Hiruzen dropped the bomb on her. "Also, there will be a modification to the Suzaku Directive. Genin Sakura Hurano is to be given the training necessary to act as your backup in regards to Naruto Uzumaki's situation with the Suzaku Directive once she meets the minimum necessary physical requirements for the directive's purpose."

Kakashi looked at Hiruzen with a look of surprise at the hokage's declaration. However, both men were pulled to look at Fuka who was barely containing her killing intent. "I formally protest this sir! The Suzaku Directive is limited to 16 year old chunin rank kunoichis or higher for extremely valid reasons. Forcing a 12, almost 13 year old genin to fulfill the directive is just asking for problems."

Personally, Hiruzen agreed with Fuka and hoped that this addition was never needed. However, planning for a worst case scenario was part of the burdens of leadership and he was old friends with this particular burden. "Your protest has been noted and dismissed, Jonin Asakawa. My only advice for you is to insure your training is enough that the Suzaku Directive does not need to go into effect. If things do take an unexpected turn for the worse, insure that you are in a position to fulfill the directive so that your genin student does not have to do so in your place."

The hokage allowed part of his disgust and weariness to show on his face as his voice softens. "Off the record Fuka, I really don't want to force Sakura into fulfilling the Suzaku Directive. She's far too young to be forced into such a position and fulfilling the directive at her age has a strong possibility of killing her career as an active ninja. Sadly, as the Hokage I need to weigh the needs of Konoha and the Land of Fire in light of Naruto falling without a replacement. We need to keep the Uzumaki around in order to keep the Kyuubi contained. If there isn't another Uzumaki available to seal the Kyuubi into when Naruto dies then we might as well start the evacuation of Konoha because once it reforms, the Kyuubi will attack us. Jiraiya might, just might, have the abilities to seal the beast again. However, without an Uzumaki we won't have anywhere safe to seal the beast."

A hard look crossed Fuka's magnificent face as she spoke. "I'll inform Sakura because it's my orders sir. However, I will insure that such measures do not have to be taken!" With that said, the jonin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Kakashi turned to look at the worn hokage and stated, "You should have let me train Naruto like I requested. I would have insured that he would be strong enough to not need such considerations sir. We didn't have to have such plans for Kushina or Mito." Ever since Obito's betrayal had been revealed, Kakashi had stopped being so carefree like he had been. The habits that Kakashi had picked up in honor of his onetime friend had been dropped. The famed jonin hadn't reverted to his by the book attitude that he had as a child. However, there was an edge and hardness about Kakashi that he hadn't shown before the Uchiha Purge had happened.

Hiruzen looked over at Kakashi and felt a bit of sorrow for the young man. Everyone who knew Kakashi knew that the he blamed himself for Obito's betrayal. Kakashi was convinced that Obito's betrayal would never have happened if he had been able to rescue his friend all those years ago on that fateful mission. It didn't matter that the inquiry board had ruled that there was nothing within Kakashi abilities to do to help Obito after reviewing the silver haired jonin's memories of the incident. Even the second inquiry board that had been set up after Obito's reveal as the betrayer exonerated Kakashi. That inquiry board had ruled that Obito's survival was due to an unknown third party who had for some reason saved Obito through an unknown jutsu bringing him to facilities that could insure his survival and turn him against Konoha.

The Hokage took a puff of his pipe and then quipped back to his subordinate. "In case it somehow slipped your memory Kakashi, Kushina and Mito were both women. Trying to make plans to continue their line if they fell was pointless because they didn't have the necessary equipment to impregnate a kunoichi. Naruto can so it would be stupid to not plan for such a situation given the stakes involved. I'm dearly hoping that such contingencies will not be needed; and if for some reason it is necessary that Fuka can handle the task instead of Sakura. Planning for the worse and hoping for the best is a burden of my position."

Hiruzen then gave Kakashi a sad smile as he continued on. "I know you wanted to teach Naruto to try and repay Minato. But, you need to take a step back and look at everything objectively. Naruto knows everything Minato did thanks to Aima Sophia so how much can you really teach him given all of the help and advice Minato gave you to turn you into the ninja you are today? You have many more jutsus now than when Minato was alive, but the core of your skills and outlook is still the same. Fuka's knowledge of jutsus is almost as vast as your own and she has a number of skills related to infiltration and espionage that neither you nor anyone in Naruto's ancestral memories has. She can help Naruto unlock the full abilities resting in his blood and help him to add new ones to pass on."

"On the other hand, you are a very good possible teacher for your own students and possibly the best one we have for young Sasuke. That young boy has great promise as a ninja, but he can easily be led down a dark path in his quest to restore the Uchiha Clan's honor. You're also the only one who can teach Sasuke how to use the Sharingan if he activates his kekkei genkai since Itachi doesn't have enough time to fully train his brother and the two of them are effectively ostracized from the rest of their clan. I'm also hoping that your shared pasts of dealing with parental decisions that caused you both a great deal of problems will help you reach Sasuke even though there is a world of difference between the two incidents."

Kakashi had read the full report on his potential students and understood Hiruzen's decisions. His solid skills at tracking would help Hinata who had been swapped into the traditional position of the top kunoichi for team balancing. Sakura was the top kunoichi of the year for the Academy and having her on a team with Sasuke and Shikamaru created a major deficiency for said team in terms of tracking and detection. It was also hoped by some that Kakashi would be able to get Shikamaru to shake off his lazy nature just like Kakashi had gotten rid of his habitual lateness that had previously caused him to constantly court demotion. Kakashi doubted that though as it was very unlikely that Shikamaru had a dead friend who would turn out to be alive and a massive traitor. His prior experiences working with Hyugas and Naras made him a good fit for training Hinata and Shikamaru in addition to the skills he offered as a sensei.

The silver haired jonin let out a sigh knowing that Hiruzen was correct that he was a better fit as Sasuke's teacher rather than as Naruto's. Still didn't change the fact that Kakashi wanted to teach Naruto. It had been something he had been hoping to have for years as a way to both connect with Naruto and to repay Minato for everything the man had done for him. Kakashi had been too young and his career took him out of the village too often to make a strong case for him to adopt Naruto after Minato and Kushina died. The Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex was able to provide Naruto with a safer and more stable environment to grow up in than Kakashi ever could. Besides, it would have drawn more attention to Naruto from foreign spies if the Yondaime's only surviving student took in a newborn baby.

Kakashi bowed his head to Hiruzen and said, "Well I must be off now. I think I've waited long enough to meet my team in order to test their patience. I'll see you when it's time for me to report on my prospective team's status."

* * *

As Kakashi was arriving at the Ninja Academy Kiba, Sakura, and Naruto were leaving. Naruto had invited both teammates out for a small celebratory meal and they both had accepted. Kiba spoke as the trio of new genin reached the outer grounds of the Academy. "Hey Naruto, what was that stuff that sensei was saying about your kekkei genkai? She was saying something about you having the memories of a bunch of ninjas in your head?"

Naruto stopped in his tracks, looked around to check out his surroundings, and them motioned for Sakura and Kiba to follow him to a more secluded area on the edge of the Academy. Once they were alone Naruto answered back. "Aima Sophia does more than simply give me very good recall of memories like is known around Konoha. The specifics of my kekkei genkai were kept secret while I was at the Academy because it was deemed that I'd become too big of a risk for becoming a kidnapping target if Aima Sophia's abilities were too widely known before I had enough skill to defend myself. Since I'm now a genin, Aima Sophia's abilities are under less secrecy. However, the Hokage doesn't want my kekkei genkai advertised until I've become a chunin. At the moment, Aima Sophia's full abilities are a Class E secret. Is that understood?"

Both of Naruto's teammates nodded their heads. The instructors at the Academy had taught all potential ninjas about the odd dichotomy ninjas had between the need to keep their abilities secret to accomplish missions and the need to advertise their abilities in order to get missions. This had led to a discussion on the unofficial Class E secret. This was a something that, while technically not hidden from the public and thus not an official military secret, was regarded as something that was better talked about away from listening ears. There was no official penalty for carelessly talking about anything in the unofficial Class E category. However, ninjas who couldn't keep a Class E secret tended to get the worst and least glamorous assignments way more that they should by pure random chance.

The young shinobi then explained his kekkei genkai. "Aima Sophia literally means blood wisdom and that's a good description of what it does. My kekkei genkai records all of the bearer's memories and passes them on to the person's children. It also creates a copy of the child's other parent's memories and passes those along. These inherited memories get updated each time a child touches their parents. Inherited memories are easy to access once the kekkei genkai fully activates like it did for me." Naruto paused for a second to point to his blue within blue eyes. "There is perfect recall with memories accessed via Aima Sophia. These memories also cannot be removed via any known jutsu since they are recorded genetically along with being recorded in my brain. With practice, one can also access their own memories with the same clarity as their inherited memories."

Kiba blinked his eyes and then pointed at Naruto with a bit of outrage. "That's just bullshit! You mean to tell me that I busted my ass trying to study all those years in the Academy while you got to coast along on your parents' memories? I suppose you also have dozens of high ranking jutsus at your fingertips that you can pull off whenever you want while I have to beg to learn a measly C rank jutsu from mom."

Naruto shook his head, "I still had to study at the Academy because some things changed in the lessons since my parents went to school or were even alive Kiba. I'll admit I know quite a lot of powerful jutsus thanks to my ancestors. However, I can't use most of them because I haven't put in the practice necessary to use them as I'm just a 12 year old. My body wouldn't be able to handle the stress of those jutsus right now. Besides, Aima Sophia does have its downsides since I have all of my parents and my forbearers with their partners' memories down the line that Aima Sophia has been passed down while being unable to remove any memory."

Kiba gave Naruto a quizzical look and said, "And just how is that a downside Naruto?"

In a deadpan manner, Naruto answered his stubbornly thick teammate. "I have inherited memories that I would rather not have. For example, my introduction to Sex Ed was me accidentally calling up my parents memories of the night I was conceived and recalling both mom and dad's memories of that night. Those memories were in perfect detail."

Sakura cut in at this point. "I think it's safe to say that Naruto paid a serious price for any advantages his kekkei genkai gave him in school Kiba." In the back of Sakura's mind, her inner self was much more vocal on the subject. Her inner self was wondering why Naruto didn't kill himself after living through those memories. There were some things that were just worse than death.

Kiba nodded his head in agreement shivering at the thought of experiencing something like that. He then stated, "I take back what I said Naruto. But on the plus side, does this mean you know who your folks were?"

Naruto nodded his head and then said, "Yes I do. However, my precise lineage is currently classified as a Class A secret until I become at least a chunin. The Hokage feels my lineage plus my kekkei genkai would once again make me a prime kidnapping target for enemies looking to gain intelligence on Konoha. Once I'm a chunin, my skills should be enough to deter overt kidnapping attempts." Left unsaid was the fact that he'd still have to be on guard for enemy kunoichi's trying to seduce or trick him into fathering a child for them.

Sakura then shifted the conversation by asking, "So which restaurant are we going to go to in order to celebrate our officially becoming a genin team? We never decided where we are going." This quickly started an animated debate among the trio over where they were going to eat. All members of the team argued for their favorite restaurant and finally agreed to go to a place that served all of their favorite foods.

* * *

Team training started at 8 am just like Fuka said it would. Fuka hit the ground running by giving her students five pound wrist weights and ten pound leg weights. She had a similar, although much heavier, set of weights that she put on her wrists and legs as well. There was also a small weight set up for Akamaru to wear. Fuka then proceeded to lead the team through a two hour long aerobic exercise marathon switching between laps around the training ground, jumping jacks, sit-ups, pushups, and other cardio exercises. She refused to let the team stop or slow down as she mixed things up to exercise every muscle. Any attempts to use chakra to enhance or maintain one's performance was quickly spotted and Fuka soon threatened to add fines to anyone who 'cheated' on this portion of the exercise.

The warm up exercise ended at 10 am and Fuka gave her students a five minute rest period to have some water. Sakura was sitting on the ground greedily drinking from her water canteen. Kiba was panting a bit as he had some water. Naruto wiped away some of his sweat and had a few sips of his water. Sakura wasn't used to doing exercises at this intensity and length with weights. Kiba was in better physical condition than Sakura and he was used to lugging around some extra weight from Akamaru. His nin dog wasn't as heavy as his weights, but the practice helped. Naruto just needed some water and then he was as good as new with a little extra body odor thrown in.

After five minute break, Fuka put the trio through an hour long practice of their taijutsu forms. Fuka was standing opposite of her students so that she could observe their practice while she did her own and offer any critiques when needed. After the taijutsu practice there was a half hour of shuriken and kunai throwing with Fuka running the trio through speed, accuracy, and distance drills. Once the ranged weaponry practice was over, the trio had to do close quarter weapons practice. During this period Kiba and Sakura used their kunais like combat knives while Naruto was allowed to practice with his ninjato. However, Fuka did inform Naruto that he would need to train at least two days a week with a plain kunai since he wouldn't always have access to a sword while on missions.

Noon came and Fuka said, "Alright students. It is time to eat. Take off your weights and head over to that tree so we can eat." She removed her weights and placed them on the ground before heading to the tree she had pointed at. Sakura and Naruto quickly joined Fuka with Kiba taking a little longer because he had to take Akamaru's weights off as well. Fuka sat with her back to the trunk of the tree with her students sitting before her as all of them ate.

Once Kiba had eaten half of his lunch, he asked a question. "Hey sensei? Why did you have us take the weights off? I thought that with weights you were supposed to wear them all the time for maximum effect."

Fuka shook her head. "That is a foolish notion Kiba started by a few storytellers who only have half of the understanding of weight training. Your body needs to rest from the weights. If you just started to use the weights all of the time your muscles and bones would eventually start to break down. Now, you can condition yourself to use weights for a much longer period of time. The Maito clan is rather well known in taijutsu circles for their conditioning to wear heavy weights often. However, such conditioning takes months to do and has to be handled very carefully to insure that the person undergoing conditioning doesn't hurt themselves."

"Even with the conditioning, it's stupid for someone to wear weights 24/7 disregarding the potential health problems. We use weights to enhance our abilities. Someone who fights with their weights on is not fighting at their full potential because the weight is hindering them. The extra weight also messes up your reaction times as you no doubt noticed with your drop in accuracy during practice today. If you don't train without the weights as well your reaction time and general fighting ability will drop because your body won't know how to react properly without the weight anymore. This means a hypothetical ninja who trains with weights 24/7 cannot fully utilize their full power because their training has gotten them just used to fighting with their weights which are a handicap in a fight. Such a stupid ninja is nothing more than a corpse that hasn't been buried yet."

"The weights will be part of our training because they help you if you know how to go about using them properly. What we did this morning will be our regular morning routine. On practice days, you will use the weights the entire time since we have afternoon training without the weights. On mission days, you will use the weights for half of the session switching between the general physical exercise and the more specific exercises."

Sakura let out a sight of exhaustion and muttered, "I knew that being a genin would require training like this I would have started using weights back in the Academy."

Naruto shook his head and replied, "No you wouldn't have Sakura. Weights like we used today are forbidden to be sold to any civilian under the age of 15 due to a general health regulation from the Daimyo's court. If you somehow got an older relative to buy you a pair the pair would have been confiscated by the Academy Instructors if they caught you using them. There would have been simply too great of a chance of you hurting yourself or causing problems for your future physical development for you to use them while you were the Academy since you were too young. Even now, we're only allowed to use weights because of two reasons. First, we've proven to have sufficient physical strength to use them safely thanks to passing the Genin physical test. Second, we are using these weights under the supervision of a trained superior who knows how to use them"

Fuka nodded her head and continued from what Naruto had said, "Naruto here is perfectly correct. I will be taking the training weights home with me after all of our training sessions. I trust you three as well as any jonin can trust their new genin students. However, I also know just how tempting it can be for a genin to try and push their training as far as possible. I did that myself a few times back when I was a genin." Fuka then pulled out a tea set and poured herself a cup while offering everyone a cup of tea as well.

* * *

Once lunch was over the trio of genin expected to be thrown into another round of exercise. However, Fuka surprised them by telling them to leave the weights off and sit down for a lecture. The jonin stood in front of her students and calmly explained. "There is a certain amount of theoretical knowledge that all genin need to know in order to be successful as shinobi. This is in addition to what you are taught back in the Academy. Also, shinobi need to know how to apply what they have learned to come up with a plan of action. Your previous senseis often repeated that your mind is the greatest weapon you can have and they were not trying to pad their lecture time by saying this. We will go over these theoretical aspects after lunch on training days so that you can continue to learn while your bodies rest a bit more from the morning exercise."

"For today, our lecture will be on teamwork with a focus on coordinating a team's actions in combat. It is one thing for you to say that you need to work together and it is a different thing to actually work together. Part of working together is practicing together or going on missions together. This gives you the experience to anticipate each others actions and to know just how capable every member of the team is at different tasks. It won't be your responsibility for a while, but you must keep in mind who is good at what when it comes time to select tasks. A mission can be lost if say a heavy hitter is assigned as a scout even through his or her tracking skills are poor. Teams who have trained or worked together will know will know who is good at what."

"Sometimes, teams have to be put together quickly for one reason or another. Why this happens isn't important for our lecture now. What is important is how to work together in the best possible manner so that your lack of experience working or training together doesn't create too big of a liability. Later in your careers, you might team up with a shinobi who had developed a reputation for a certain style of fighting so you will not go into the situation blind as to their abilities. This will likely not happen until you are chunin or jonins since only the strongest ninjas develop a reputation for a certain style of fighting and are not quickly cut down because of it."

"At your current level, one of the quickest ways to learn how a new teammate would fight is to look at their known background. Ninjas from shinobi clans typically favor a certain way of fighting. Some clans are well known like the Inuzuka clan that Kiba is from. Anyone working with or fighting an Inuzuka would expect most of the Inuzuka's fighting style to revolve around their dogs and various jutsus to augment close range fighting. Other clans are less well known such as the Uzumaki clan which has faded from popular knowledge due to the fall of Uzu nearly two generations ago. This kind of situation makes it harder for you to know immediately what an ally is likely to excel in, but it does offer the advantage of your enemies being less likely to know as well. Shinobi from civilian backgrounds are harder to get information this way since they are blank tablets as far as family fighting expectations. In the case of someone like Sakura, the best source of quick information is to find out who trained them. If you know who their primary teacher was, you can get an idea in what they've been trained in."

"However, the best way for several shinobi who haven't worked together before to build teamwork rapidly for an immediate mission is to have a short discussion about their abilities and stick to the standard formations. The standard formations you were taught about in the Academy and the more advanced ones you will be taught when you progress in rank are such because they work. They may not work as well as a specialized formation made by a group that knows each other. But, everyone will know what to do and what to expect which is a key part of teamwork on the battlefield. Briefing each other on your abilities will let every member of the team know what to generally expect. You don't have to list every jutsu and what they all do in detail. That would take way too much time. However, you don't want your temporary teammates to be killed because a jutsu you used seemed to come out of left field and surprised them giving an enemy an opening."

Fuka paused for a moment to let what she had said sink in. After a moment passed she saw Sakura get ready to speak up. The jonin held out her hand to silence the incoming questions before she started to speak again. "I will give you all an example of explaining your abilities since none of you know what I currently can do. I specialize in infiltration and rapid assaults on enemy targets. My ninjutsu abilities are varied covering all five of the basic elements. In combat, I specialize in using ninjutsu at range while using taijutsu up close to compliment some of my close range jutsus. I often use a close range jutsu called Shikei Seppun to drain an enemy's chakra and acquire information about their jutsus. Additionally, I often combo this jutsu with Shiki Tenshin which allows me to fight using special clones known as Norowa re Shitai Bunshins while my real body is safely protected inside a special seal. This makes it look like I can take mortal wounds without being killed greatly unnerving any enemy. Now, do you have any questions?"

Sakura spoke first. "Why is one of your jutsus known as the cursed corpse clone?"

Fuka's face hardened as she explained, "I won't go into too much detail about the creation of the Norowa re Shitai Bunshins unless I actually teach any of you that hijutsu and that is not likely to happen. All I will say is that I need to prepare the Norowa re Shitai Bunshins ahead of time in order to use them and that I need to use animal parts in part of the process of creating the bunshin. I, like my sensei line that has passed down this jutsu, use parts of pigs to make these bunshin. However, back when this jutsu was created, one of the original inventors of the jutsu became infamous for using the corpses of her victims to create new bunshins. Hence the name of the jutsu."

Fuka was not going to say anything more about her jutsus than what she said unless she was taking someone on as an apprentice beyond that of a regular genin student. One of her fellow students to the master that taught her these hijutsus had talked to Orochimaru about the Norowa re Shitai bunshin in detail. Those talks were supposed to be a key piece in that Fushi Tensei jutsu Orochimaru had been working on developing when he escaped Konoha. That Orochimaru was trying to develop a jutsu to transfer his soul into another person was an A rank secret at the moment.

The sensei of Team 10 only knew this secret because she was the only living person at the time with knowledge of the Norowa re Shitai and several other jutsus that Orochimaru was using as the base to start developing the Fushi Tensei. She had been called in as the closest thing Konoha had to an expert to examine Orochimaru's notes on the Fushi Tensei. What she saw made her sick that her hijutsus were being perverted in such a manner. Fuka was also concerned because from what she could see, Orochimaru might actually be on track to creating a jutsu that would transfer his soul.

Fuka refocused the conversation on teamwork and continued her lecture for another twenty minutes. Once the lecture was over, she proceeded to teach her students the D rank jutsu Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu. This ninjutsu would be very useful to help her students attack enemies and would serve as a base for many more advanced jutsus that involved Doton. This would be the first in a cycle of D rank jutsu from each of the five primary elements that Fuka planned to try and teach her students before the first month was up. All three genins could perform the jutsu by the time training was called for the day. However, only Naruto was able to do it fast enough to be useful in a fight and even that wasn't good enough for Fuka to say Naruto would be able to practice another jutsu.

* * *

Author's note: Norowa re Shitai Bunshin was one I made up since the wiki never explained how Fuka had multiple bodies. It only mentioned that she needed multiple bodies to store the chakra she took with the Shiki Tenshin and that she possessed them with her hair. I used a free online English to romaji translator to come up with the name because I didn't want to break the naming convention of the story. I will use the same translator as much as possible to help with the consistency. Any further original jutsus I create will have their English name dropped in the story soon as I can so you get an idea what on earth my characters are talking about.

On the Suzaku Directive, this is one of my own creations for this story and will no doubt draw some heat from some people. However, having a protocol in place to insure the survival of a useful bloodline makes sense when you consider that in the Naruto world ninjas are biological super weapons. Look at canon Naruto with the Uzumakis and the Kyuubi. The Biju are that setting's equivalent of a nuclear bomb and Konoha had to go to an allied village to get someone to seal their Biju into. Old allies or not, one does not put their most powerful potentially city leveling weapon in the hands of a foreign national unless they don't have another option. When Minato needs to reseal the Kyuubi after Obito unseals Kurama the only two valid options in his mind is either Kushina or Naruto. This isn't out of some sense of nobility, this is the supreme military leader of Konoha and a well renown genius assessing the situation and determining that the only choices on where to store a WMD is either a dying woman or an hour old defenseless baby. Sealing the Kyuubi in Kushina as she's dying potentially costs them the kyuubi as someone else could seal it when it reforms while sealing the Kyuubi into Naruto takes Konoha's strongest strategic asset out of use for at least a decade if not longer for Naruto become a ninja. Neither move is a wise or strategically sound one if there was any other viable alternative.

Do Fuka and Hiruzen want Fuka to carry Naruto's child conceived as he's dying? Of course they don't! Do they want Sakura to get stuck with this task? That's an even stronger no. However, a realist would know that there is a possibility of Naruto getting killed while out on a mission. The Kyuubi will reform after a couple of years and then, considering what the biju did the last time it was free, it isn't too hard to imagine Kurama coming to wipe Konoha off the map. Looking at the Naruto series, it becomes a reasonable deduction that only the Uzumakis can contain the Kyuubi. Logically, only Naruto posthumous child would be able to contain the kyuubi in this scenario which is what Hiruzen is planning for with his changes to the Suzaku Directive for Team 10. Everyone's lives in Konoha are on the line if this situation comes up which is why Hiruzen is throwing Sakura in as extra insurance. It would likely destroy Sakura's career having to have a child this early along with the traumatic effects of losing Naruto and likely Fuka as well for her to get stuck with this duty. But, the needs of one person's career loses out to the needs of thousands of lives to keep living in this situation.

For those of you who are still confused about how much of Naruto's bloodline is known in the village, this following note is for you. The general population knows that Naruto's kekkei genkai involves preservation of memories and assumes that the memories preserved are just his. After all, his memories were the key piece of evidence leading to the downfall of the Uchiha which can't be hidden. Those people with a reason to know are aware of the full abilities of Aima Sophia. This is an open secret that is currently kept quiet to reduce the chance of enemy shinobis trying to capture Naruto for his kekkei genkai. Only a subset of those who know the full abilities of Aima Sophia are aware of Naruto's exact lineage. That is being kept as a secret for the time being because it is the knowledge Naruto has inherited from them that is such a big security risk. The genin with the memories of several kages is far more tempting as a kidnaping target than the genin with the memories of an unknown lineage.


	7. Chapter 7

Team 10 reported to their training field on time and preformed the morning exercises just as Fuka said they would yesterday. After a quick lunch, the team headed to the Hokage Tower to get their first mission. There was energy about Team 10 as they headed for the tower. Most of the energy was coming from Kiba and Akamaru who were pumped to be doing ninja missions for real instead of playing ninja with their friends. Sakura was more reserved as she walked, but there was a slight bounce in her step and a smile on her face. She was just as excited as Kiba, she just could keep it quiet better. Fuka and Naruto had knowing smirks that they shared with each other and not with their teammates.

Once Team 10 got to the Hokage Tower, Fuka led them down a hall to the mission assignment room. This was the room where regular missions that were free for anyone to grab either individually or as custom group were given. Missions where the client had specifically asked and paid a premium a particular team were handled by someone in the next room over who would send out messengers for the team in question. Missions requiring a preselected team were typically high ranking missions and handled by the Hokage in his office.

Both Sakura and Kiba were surprised to Hiruzen sitting at the main table handing out missions alongside several of the administrative chunin. Fuka wasn't surprised since she was used to the Hokage coming down from his office to man that post the first week after genin graduations. Naruto knew that it was a tradition that was started in the middle of his great-grandfather Tobirama's reign. During the Shodai's and the first part of the Nidaime's rule the administration of Konoha had been done in a smaller building known as the Hokage's Hall. That building had been a large open area with a small half wall semi-enclosed area for the Hokage to work in so everyone could see and interact with the Hokage at any time. The administration of Konoha grew rapidly back then as the concept of shinobi villages strengthened causing more shinobi clans and civilians seeking training in the Land of Fire to join Konoha.

Once the Hokage Hall was too small to handle everything the Hokage Tower was built resulting in the need to have a separate office for the Hokage. Tobirama had wanted to keep a similar design to his brother's Hokage Hall. However, it just wasn't practical to keep the same layout due to information security concerns and ease of movement. Tobirama didn't want to become isolated from his ninjas so he started coming down to personally assign missions for the week that the new genin graduated. It let him get to know the new shinobi and keep a benevolent eye on the more senior members of the shinobi force that were too low to regularly interact with him. Hiruzen and Minato had also adopted this practice during their times as Hokage.

Hiruzen smiled at Team 10 as they made their way to him. He then said in his usual tone. "Good afternoon Team 10. I was wondering when you would be here for your first mission. I have three possible missions that I think would be a good fit for you. Jonin Asakawa, the choice of mission is up to you. Your team can either watch over Mrs. Chiba's daughter for an estimated period of 5 hours, clean the park grounds at the foot of the Hokage Monument, or compete a mail run for a sick postman. What is your choice?"

Both Sakura and Kiba stared in shock when they heard the Hokage mention the missions available for their team. Neither of them noticed the very faint click of a camera going off from one of the chunin assistants who took these photos for the Jonin sensei's future scrap books. Kiba started to sputter in shock. "Is this a-"

Kiba's sentence was cut off by Sakura's foot stomping on his own. Sakura then harshly whispered to Kiba, "Don't question the Hokage." Inside her head, Inner Sakura had already completed Kiba's sentence with half a dozen insults thrown in for good measure.

This rather expected by play was politely ignored by all of the other ninjas in the room. Practically all new genins were shocked when they discovered what D rank missions were like. The Ninja Academy technically informed the academy students what D rank missions were by using D rank mission reports to demonstrate how to write mission reports. However, the students thought that reports on catching a cat or cleaning a hotel came from their instructors' imaginations to demonstrate how to write the reports. The regular students never knew that they were looking at actual mission reports from the previous decade.

Fuka quickly made up her mind. "I'll take the mission to clean park grounds." Hiruzen quickly made some notes on the assignment paperwork and then handed Fuka a small laminated card with the mission details. Since this was a semi-regular mission, it had a prepared reusable card instead of a scroll to hold the mission details. She looked over the mission details and nodded her head. The jonin then said, "Alright Team 10. Follow me to collect the cleaning supplies. They're stored in a shed near the park."

Team 10 followed Fuka out of the Hokage Tower in silence. Once outside the tower Kiba's self-restraint ended. "This sucks ass! What the hell kind of mission is this? We're ninjas for the Rikudo's sake and not gardeners."

Sakura piped in. "Sensei, isn't this mission a little below our abilities?" There was a slight frustration in Sakura's voice that she wasn't able to hide.

Naruto let out a chuckle and shook his head slightly. "Guys, this mission is at our abilities. We're raw rookies whose only accomplishment is proving that we able to do well enough not to end up in the Ashigaru. Not that there is anything wrong with the Ashigaru, but for shinobi that's not really an accomplishment. If we want to get a shot at the good missions we need to prove that we can accomplish a steady string of D rank missions without messing up. What client is going to trust you to guard a merchant shipment across country if you can't even deliver some groceries in town?"

Fuka nodded her head and then explained what Naruto had just said in more detail. "Trust in your competency is part of the reason why new genins are mainly given D rank missions. However, there is more to D Rank missions for you three than just proving your reliability. It offer you a chance to practice some of the basic aspects of being a ninja in the field such as teamwork, situational awareness, and observation to name a few in a real life setting with minimal risk. D Rank missions serve a PR role to bring the Konoha ninjas closer to the civilians. Mainly this is within Konoha's Han, but it also helps to keep tensions from forming with the lords and civilians of the surrounding Hans as well."

The jonin paused for moment and her face got a faraway look for a split second. She then continued on in a slightly somber mood. "There is one more aspect to the D Rank missions and it is not something that most shinobi think about until it is necessary even though it is extremely important. D Rank missions give you the necessary skills to blend in as civilians for a short time. Whether it is for collecting information, getting close to a target, being a hidden guard, or lying low after part of a mission has put everyone on high alert the ability to blend in can save your life. Most people don't think about the gardener unless he messes up the lawn. To nobles, the help is invisible and thus a perfect place for either an assassin or a guard to hide. You don't have to do the job perfectly. However, the ability to do various civilian 'chores' is very important. That's one of big reasons why the Shodai created D Rank missions."

This quick tag team lecture calmed Sakura and Kiba's tempers over getting stuck cleaning up a park. They were still sore about everything, but they could accept it. Naruto didn't make any further comments about the duo's reactions. He had known for years about the truth about D rank missions and rookie genin teams' place on the mission totem pole. If it wasn't for Aima Sophia, Naruto was sure that he would be protesting just a vocally if not more than Kiba had.

* * *

Team 10 completed the mission and wrote the appropriate after mission reports four hours after they arrived at the park. Fuka collected her students' reports to add to her own report. She gave them a look over to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong or missing from the reports. These might only be one page standard D rank mission reports, but they were her students' first official mission report and they would be going into the official records of the village. Kiba's report was good, but his handwriting was really poor. This was a minor irritant as there were Jonins with worse handwriting. Sakura's report was crisp with wonderful handwriting. No doubt it would be up for consideration in a decade as an example for Academy students on how to write a mission report. Naruto's report read more like a jonin instructor's report without the training observations. This was probably due to his genetic memories of writing mission reports.

Once Fuka was done reviewing the reports, she turned to her students and spoke. "Good job you three on your first mission. This concludes our team activities for the day. If you wish to pursue independent training this evening you may. However, I want you three to remember that tomorrow is a full team training day so don't do any training today that will make it hard to do tomorrow's training. Sakura, I want to speak to you in private before you leave today."

Sakura blinked her eyes and replied, "Yes Sensei." She then said her goodbyes to Naruto and Kiba. Kiba said that he was going to try and do some training at home. Naruto left stating that he wanted to start looking into an apartment to rent. As a genin Naruto was a legal adult which meant he had adult responsibilities such as finding a roof over his head. The orphanages were for children and he had 90 days after officially joining the shinobi force to find somewhere else to live.

Fuka waited for the boys to leave and then motioned for Sakura to sit down. The jonin sat down opposite of her student once Sakura was on the grass. Fuka smiled and said, "Sakura, you have a disadvantage compared to Naruto and Kiba. They have the support of their ninja clans to help them in independent study and you do not coming from a civilian clan. I am willing help you get around this disadvantage by offering you extra lessons once a week after a D rank mission. Do you accept this offer?"

A surprised look appeared on Sakura's face. She hadn't been expecting an offer like this at all. Sakura nodded her head slightly and said, "Thank you Fuka. I accept your offer. Do you want to start these extra lessons now?"

Fuka shook her head, "There will be no extra training of that type today Sakura. Today I want to give you a short lecture about being a kunoichi. There are some fundamental differences between shinobi and kunoichi that affect their training and their future abilities. One of these differences is the fact that all women's chakras have a natural Yin chakra emphasis whereas men's chakras have a natural Yang chakra emphasis. This difference in emphasis is why women typically have more natural talent at genjutsu than men who typically have more natural talent in ninjutsu. These natural leanings can be overcome through training as I am a ninjutsu specialist."

Sakura nodded her head acknowledging what Fuka had told her. She had seen brief mentions of Yin and Yang Chakra in the Academy library, but any details on that level of chakra theory was restricted to active duty ninjas. She then asked, "Is there anything else I need to know about Yin chakra?"

"Not at this time Sakura. The Yin and Yang chakra emphasis only becomes important in certain high level fuuinjutsu or very delicate medical procedures. I mentioned it mainly as an example to show that men and women are fundamentally different from each other. These differences have their own advantages and disadvantages making no gender superior to the other. Rather, men and women normally excel at different things. This seems obvious, but many people ignore these biological facts intentionally or unintentionally for a variety of reasons. One of the most common reasons you'll find in the shinobi forces is that shinobis will try to train kunoichis just like they would shinobis because that is the way they were trained. The issues this develops is handled by jonin or chunin kunoichis pulling genin kunoichis on to the side and offering some advice for the young ninja if their shinobi sensei is making this kind of error in their training. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded her head and replied, "Yes Fuka." The pink haired genin frowned for a moment as a thought came to her. "Sensei, wouldn't Kiba and Naruto have to be given some pointers by more experienced shinobi to help them since they're shinobi learning from a kunoichi? I mean, if kunoichi have problems learning from shinobi than shouldn't shinobi also have problems learning from kunoichis?" Sakura didn't want to question Fuka's training methods since from what she could see they were very sound.

A small smile appeared on Fuka's face as she leaned over to gently brush a stray strand of hair away from Sakura. "I love that you're thinking things through logically Sakura. The ability to reason and draw rational deductions is a very important skill to have. Your conclusion was good for the facts you had, but you didn't have all of the facts. I, like most kunoichis, know how to train shinobis because I was taught that manner by my first jonin instructor. Also, Naruto has the memories of several very skilled shinobis to draw on so he will be able to point out any issues on the faint off chance I've forgotten something important."

The older kunoichi schooled her face back to a serene teaching look and continued her lecture. "Let us get back to the differences between kunoichis and shinobis. As you may know, kunoichis typically have greater chakra control and lesser chakra amounts than shinobis. The main source for kunoichi's greater chakra control and lesser chakra amounts rests in the female chakra circulatory system. Women have 36 more tenketsu than men; 24 of these tenketsu are in the uterus and 6 tenketsu are in each breast. These extra tenketsu are there to help a woman transfer her chakra into her child's chakra system while the child is still developing in her womb and during the first few weeks of a child's life. Very minute amounts of chakra are needed in a mother's milk to help a newborn's chakra system stay healthy. The time shrinks depending on how developed a child's chakra system is. There is a jutsu that kunoichis are taught when they are older that will let them lactate on command. Many kunoichis use this jutsu to act as wet nurses/bodyguards for infant nobles. There's also a common D rank mission for in village kunoichis to act as wet nurses for the orphanages here in Konoha."

"These extra tenketsu provide more control. However, the extra tenketsu comes with extra length in the chakra network in addition to the extra complexity of the tenketsu themselves and that's a problem when it comes to chakra reserves. One's chakra reserves medically speaking is the excess chakra in the chakra network beyond what is needed to keep the chakra network healthy. It's similar to the circulatory system, but there are no issues with 'high chakra pressure' or clogged chakra networks. When one's chakra reserves are too low, they start dipping into the chakra needed to maintain the chakra network which causes all sorts of problems with the various parts of the body. That's why chakra exhaustion is such a serious medical problem and can kill you if taken too far."

A lightbulb proverbially went off in Sakura's mind and she blurted out. "The extra length in the chakra network is why kunoichis have smaller reserves than shinobis! The extra length means more chakra is needed to maintain the network which is why they have less chakra to manipulate." She then blushed and bowed her head to Fuka. "I'm sorry for cutting you off sensei. That was completely out of line for me to do."

Fuka nodded her head and replied, "I accept your apology this time Sakura. However, I do request that you try not to make a habit out of interrupting me. But you are correct; the extra length and complexity in the female chakra network is a major factor in women's typically smaller chakra reserves. Another major factor is that women are typically slightly smaller than men meaning that they typically have less total physical energy to generate chakra with. Combine these two factors and you get the smaller reserves women are known for having."

The jonin then stood up and offered a hand to Sakura while saying, "Why don't we head to your house now Sakura? This has been enough information to dump on you today. In our next private lesson I'll teach you how to work around the natural limitations of the female chakra network to increase your chakra reserves while still keeping good chakra control. However, I think I should meet your parents and let them know about these extra lessons."

Sakura accepted Fuka's offered hand and got up. She then led her sensei through the streets of Konoha to the Haruno home which was in one of the upper scale merchant districts of the village. Sakura's father Kizashi Haruno greeted the student and sensei duo when Sakura rang the doorbell. The jovial man smiled at Sakura and cheerfully said as he embraced his daughter, "Welcome home my little blossom bud!"

A slight pink tint appeared on Sakura's face as she fought down her embarrassment at her sensei seeing her dad act like this. Sakura was saved from further embarrassment when her mother Mebuki Haruno came walking out to the kitchen and down the hallway to the front door. Mebuki called out, "Control yourself dear! Sakura isn't a little girl anymore."

Kizashi turned to look at his wife while still hugging Sakura. "It doesn't matter how old Sakura gets. She'll still be my sweet little blossom bud to me." Kizashi then turned to look at Fuka and said, "Hello there. Would you please introduce yourself? My name is Kizashi Haruno and this is my lovely wife Mebuki and my sweet daughter Sakura who I think you already know."

Fuka smiled and bowed her head politely. "It is wonderful to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Haruno. My name is Fuka Asakawa and I am your daughter's jonin sensei. I wanted to meet you so that you would know who was training your daughter. Also, I wanted to let you know that I've offered Sakura some extra lessons since her teammates have access to other means to improve their shinobi abilities."

Kizashi looked down at his daughter and then at Fuka. He bowed his head slightly and spoke in a grateful tone. "Thank you Ms. Asakawa. If you have anything that we need to know to help Sakura be a better kunoichi, than please let us know."

* * *

Kiba got to the neighborhood where the Inuzuka resided and quickly headed for their house. Kiba waved to several of his extended family members who were outside with their canine partners as he made his way to the house. Once inside, Kiba removed his sandals and put them in his spot on the shoe rack. He then walked over to a nearby board and moved a little picture of himself from the 'out at work' slot on the board to the 'at home' slot. The board was a little something his mother had created so that everyone could keep track of where they were. Tsume's marker was at 'out at work' while Hana's marker was on 'away on a mission'.

The sole Inuzuka male quickly grabbed a soda for himself and then tossed Akamaru a dog treat. Kiba cracked open the soda and took a satisfying gulp from the can. He then glanced at the calendar and confirmed that his sister wasn't expected back from her mission for three more days. His eyes left the calendar looking for something to do as he continued to down his soda. Part of Kiba wanted to do some extra training with Akamaru. However, his mother had been insistent that he not train in any of the Inuzuka jutsus without her supervision or the supervision of his sensei. He could try training with some regular jutsus, but those just weren't as cool as his family's jutsus.

Kiba crushed the soda can once it was empty and chucked it into the trash. The barely teenage boy then plopped himself onto the sofa and grabbed a hunting magazine to start reading. Akamaru quickly found a fresh rawhide and began to chew on it on the carpet next to the sofa where Kiba was lying. Once Kiba finished the first magazine he put it down and grabbed another from a nearby pile. This magazine was an outdoors magazine so it didn't have as many articles to interest Kiba. He grabbed a third magazine after he was done with the second one.

The front door opened just as Kiba was reaching for his fourth magazine and his mother came into the house. Tsume was annoyed from having to spend several hours in a meeting with several merchant guild representatives that the Inuzuka clan had significant dealings with. Tsume was never one to haggle with merchants and some of the representatives had been particularly quarrelsome.

The dog food merchant was particularly troublesome with his trying to get rid of the brand of dog food that the Inuzuka needed for their dogs in favor of a more popular brand. Who cared if the brand was popular or not? The Inuzuka insured that there was a decent demand for small scale production and the company made a respectable steady profit on the brand. Tsume had run the numbers and knew that at the price hikes that filth had been trying to pass off as necessary to maintain the brand that it would be cheaper for the Inuzuka to make their own dog food.

While Tsume was eventually able to get everything sorted out in her favor, the meeting had left her in a bad mood. Her mood only soured when Tsume made her way down the hallway and opened Kiba's bedroom door a crack to look inside. Kiba was jolted from the article he was reading about Tea Country by a feeling of dread. A second later Tsume growled out, "Kiba! Get your butt here now!"

Kiba rigidly sat up on the couch wondering what he had done to make his mother so mad. The young shinobi saw Akamaru scrambling out of the house from the corner of his eye. Akamaru was no fool, when mom's angry its every dog for himself. Kiba momentarily hung his head knowing that he was probably going to be grounded if Akamaru was acting like this. Kiba then piped up in a nervous tone that only a kid talking to his mother can use said, "I'm coming mom."

The young Inuzuka walked like a condemned man to where his mother was waiting with a frown on her face. Tsume opened Kiba's bedroom door revealing a disaster zone that only a young teenage boy could cause. "What did I tell you this morning over breakfast Kiba? Did I not specifically state that I wanted you to clean your room once you got done with your genin duties today?"

Kiba winced as the memory of the morning breakfast conversation came back to him. His mother had told him to clean up his room, but he had been too hyped about going on his first mission to really pay attention to that. Now he was going to get it. A nervous chuckle escaped Kiba's mouth as he tried to explain, "Yeah, about that. You see, I just spent the past couple of hours cleaning up a park and I just wanted to relax."

Tsume grabbed Kiba's ear and gave it a tiny twist. "It doesn't matter what your mission was or how bad your training might be Kiba. If I tell you that you need to do a chore then by all the kami you're going to do the chore and then relax. You're a genin now Kiba, not a little boy! That means you're legally an adult and its time you start acting like it. How can your commander trust you to accomplish a task on a mission by yourself when your own mother can't trust you to do a simple chore the same day she tells you to do it? Now get in there and start cleaning this room while I make dinner. If I don't see some honest effort in cleaning this room by the time dinner is ready then you won't be allowed to take a break for dinner."

Kiba's eyes widened and he blurted out, "But mom I'm getting hungry!"

There wasn't any give in Tsume's eyes as she restated her position. "Then I better see some progress on getting this room clean by the time I'm done making dinner if you want a warm dinner. However, if you spend your time farting around doing nothing than your dinner can wait at the table for you to get your act in gear and complete this chore. Don't expect any sympathy from me just because you're hungry son. If you were on a mission outside the village there would be no guarantee that you'd get three square meals a day let alone hot meals. I've had more missions that I care to count where I've gone all day without getting so much as an energy bar and several of those were when I was your age. Now get your rear in gear and clean this room."

Tsume then walked down the hall to the kitchen while Kiba scrambled to start cleaning his toxic waste dump of a room. As she walked, a small tired smile appeared on Tsume's face as she thought about her son. She loved him dearly, but the boy needed to grow up some more and grow up quick. All too soon Kiba would be going on missions outside of Konoha and risking his life. Any carelessness could kill him and Tsume would rather jump into Naraka than have to bury Kiba because she give him all the training and discipline he needed to live.

* * *

Naruto returned to the Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex for the first step in his apartment hunting process. All new genin at the complex were given a personal lecture and help on finding an apartment. The Shodai had set this up knowing that while a genin might legally be an adult, they wouldn't necessarily have all of the knowledge needed to make an adult decision. Naruto made his way to the administrative section of the complex and followed the signs set up to lead the genins to where they could have their lecture.

The signs lead to three offices with two doors closed and one open signaling someone could go inside. Naruto entered the opened door to see a man in his mid-forties with dark black hair tied in a ponytail and a slightly feral appearance sitting behind a desk. The man stood up and said, "Please close the door and state your name."

After closing the door Naruto said, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

The man flipped through a list on his desk and then checked something. He then gave a slight bow and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you Naruto. My name is Koga Yoro of the law firm Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku. My partners and I have come here to help you and your fellow graduates prepare to handle life as an adult in terms of personal finance and initial estate planning. Unlike your fellow genin from clans whether those clans be shinobi or civilian, orphan genins have the extra burden of managing their finances into a living. Your paycheck is your economic lifeblood and not a source of fun money like some of your more fortunate fellow genin may view it. Now, please sit down so I can explain how you can make the most of your paycheck."

Naruto sat down in the seat on his side of desk and then Koga sat down in his chair again. Koga then pulled out a piece of paper and put it on the desk so Naruto could see it. "This is an example of a standard paystub that you will be receiving next Friday and every two weeks afterwards as long as you are a shinobi of Konoha. Before we go any further, I want to make something completely clear that you. You are paid every two weeks and it is the net pay that will be deposited in your account. The gross pay represents the pay you've earned before factoring in taxes that you owe to Fire Country. Depending on how things go over the year, you might be able to reclaim some of the money taken out in taxes in a tax refund. However, no one can make any guarantee as to how big your tax refund might be or if you will even get a refund. For your day to day purposes, it is best to ignore your gross pay. Do you understand?"

The young shinobi nodded his head as he absorbed what he was being told. Koga didn't insist that Naruto take notes like he did with his other visitors because he knew that the boy would remember with his kekkei genkai. Koga then started to explain the parts of the paystub. "As a shinobi, your paycheck is mainly composed of base pay and mission pay. Base pay is the funds you receive from the Daimyo for being part of his military forces and is determined by your paygrade. As a fresh genin your paygrade is K1. Of the three military paygrades, the shinobi or K grade pays the least when compared to the Ashigaru's A grade or the Samurai's S grade. However, unlike the Ashigaru or the Samurai you also have mission pay which is determined by the number and rank of missions you preform."

"Now, in addition to your pay you may have various allowances added on to your pay. One allowance that you will receive is the Orphan Genin Allowance which is automatically issued to all orphans from families in good standing with Konoha. Full details on this allowance and its limitations will be given at a later point in this lecture. Other common allowances that you will likely have in the future is a clothing allowance for certain missions involving the upper nobility and a travel allowance when someone from far away purchases a mission from Konoha. These kinds of allowances are to help defray the personal cost needed to perform the mission."

Koga moved from the paystub to examples of basic bank checks and other common financial statements. After about twenty minutes of going over financial documents he moved on to explaining leases and how they worked for apartments. Koga also went over a brief explanation of things Naruto would need to look at with leases such as utilities. This part of the conversation went on until the meeting reached the 45 minute mark. At this point Koga said, "I know that we've covered a lot of material in a short amount of time. However, there are sources you can draw on to help you in preparing to get an apartment and manage your budget. In addition to various books in the library or bookstore, your Jonin sensei is supposed to help you with these matters as part of overseeing your development. You can also arrange a meeting with me or one of my partners to help set you up with an apartment. The first set of meetings to get you into your first apartment with my law firm is covered by Konoha as part of the Orphan Genin Program."

Naruto bowed his head and said, "That you for informing me about all of this Mr. Yoro. You've given me a lot to think about for the next few days. I will probably contact you in the future for your help in getting me an apartment." Naruto collected all of the information packets Koga had given him. The two of them bowed to each other again and then Naruto left the room leaving the door open for the next orphan.

Once out of his meeting, Naruto headed back to his room at the top of the complex and entered his mind to pull his ancestors memories relating finances and property. One of the first things Naruto pulled from his ancestral memories was that the law firm Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku was the latest form of a line of partnerships that dated back to the Shodai's time. Minato and Kushina knew it back when the partnership was called Myoga, Miroku, and Koga. The law firm had a long history of working with the shinobi forces very well. In fact, the law firm's clients were almost exclusively shinobi.

Naruto was able to confirm that Koga's advice was very sound for a new genin after comparing what he had told him to what his ancestors knew for several hours in his mindscape. Naruto then left his mindscape and made some dinner. After having dinner and cleaning up the dishes, Naruto wrote down a few ingredients to his growing shopping list for his off day. Then he had to clean his bathroom before he was able to take an hour to relax. Soon enough, Naruto's self-appointed bedtime came and he tucked himself into bed.

* * *

Author's note: thank you TrenchcoatMan for catching the spelling mistake I let slip in my initial preview. Also, anyone is free to use my explanation on why kunoichis have better chakra control but less chakra reserves in their stories if they wish.


	8. Chapter 8

Time quickly passed for Team 10 under Fuka's supervision. Kiba, Sakura, and Naruto were worked hard with one of the more grueling training regimes of the newer genin teams. The trio had less free time than most of their former classmates even though the laziest of genin teams didn't have that much free time. Free time for anyone in any sort of military was a luxury item that was carefully rationed out in small doses. Fuka apparently just forgot to fill in the requisition forms for some free time. However, Team 10 really couldn't complain about their relative lack of free time as Fuka was insuring that they grew stronger at a very rapid rate.

Soon enough, a month had passed since the Academy graduation and three black wagons with steel reinforced walls were lead into Konoha early one morning under the guard of several Ashigaru. Naruto noticed the wagons from the widow of his new apartment and frowned knowing what those wagons meant. He sighed and said, "It was coming up soon. I guess we might as well get it over with."

Naruto turned away from the window and returned his attention to his desk were over a dozen kunai and a water stone were set out. Eight of the kunai were in a pile to his right already sharpened. The remaining four kunai were to Naruto's left on the table waiting to be sharpened. Naruto took one of the unsharpened kunai's into his hands and proceeded to sharpen the kunai as he had many times in the past. Once the kunai in his hand was sharp, he gently placed it in the pile of sharpened kunai and got another dull kunai.

After all of the kunai were sharpened, Naruto pulled out a kunai holster from a drawer of the desk and then put the kunai in the holster. He then packaged up his water stone and put it away in the desk. After that, Naruto got up with the kunai holster in hand and took three steps to a large reinforced safe. A small key was unsealed from Naruto's belt and put into the safe's keyhole. Naruto turned the number dial on the safe to the correct code and then turned his key to unlock the safe. When the safe opened it revealed Naruto's modest, but still respectable for a genin, collection of weapons. The ready kunai holster was placed on a shelf with three other kunai holsters and then Naruto secured the safe. He then resealed his safe key to make it secured.

Naruto then left his study/arsenal and entered the kitchen/dining/family room combo. Currently, he was in the family room portion of the room. Several generous steps took Naruto past the door to his small bedroom and a few more steps got him out of the family room area and into the kitchen/dining area. He then made his way to the refrigerator which he opened and looked for a quick breakfast. As they always did when some was in the refrigerator, Naruto's eyes immediately went to the extra ramen he had bought at Ichiraku to take home for later. With a quick shake of his head Naruto reminded himself that the ramen was for dinner tonight.

He grabbed one of the breakfast bentos he had set up on his free day and proceeded to warm it up. The Shinobi Orphan's Care Complex had taught Naruto to plan his menu out several days in advance to insure that he had a proper diet and to plan for grocery shopping so as to reduce impulse purchases saving him money. When Naruto joined the Ninja Academy, he had also been taught to prepare his meals ahead of time. This was something most ninjas did as it allowed them to eat faster which could make all the difference if someone needed to grab a quick bite before a mission.

Once the bento was warm, Naruto sat down at his rather small table and began to eat. As he ate he looked around making a mental note of what house chores he'd need to do after his genin duties today. The apartment was small, but it was within his budget on a genin salary. There was a sizable fortune tied up in the Uzumaki Clan's bank accounts thanks to his parents' successes as ninjas and the various Namikaze Clan and clan member accounts defaulting to the Uzumaki Clan account. However, that was the Clan account and Naruto would not be able to access those funds until he was twenty or became a Jonin. This was due to an old clan tradition that had been written into the account when it had first been set up. It wasn't uncommon for the Uzumakis to hit the triple digits in age if they didn't fall in battle which gave them a more long term view on matters. Naruto's ancestors didn't want the clan's hard work to be lost due to a headstrong an foolish youth and so they set things up to insure that the clan heir would have some maturity before handling the finances.

Naruto finished the last bite of his bento and picked up the box to put it on the counter next to several other dirty dishes. A quick glance confirmed that nothing needed to be soaked for when he did the dishes tonight. Naruto then walked a few steps to the small family shrine he had set up. There were no names or pictures of Naruto's ancestors in order to insure his heritage stayed secret. Instead, Naruto had set up several small toad statues to represent his ancestors. Each statues was in the ancestor's favorite color. The young ninja gave a prayer to his parents for guidance and then lit a small stick of incense for the shrine.

There were a few more chores that needed to be taken care of before Naruto left for the day. He quickly went about them while occasionally glancing at the clock to make sure that time didn't get away from him. Once Naruto took care of those chores he snuffed out the half burnt incense stick just before he left the apartment. Naruto was four apartments away from the nearest stairwell and then had to walk down three flights of stairs to get to the exit of his apartment complex.

After Naruto left his apartment complex he had a semi-relaxed walk towards Team 10's meeting place. While walking down the streets Naruto was able to observe several shop owners getting ready for the day's business and a few ninjas walking around probably going to fulfill their own duties. The early morning was the quietest time to travel through the markets of Konoha. It was a peaceful quiet like the village a person slowly waking up from a good dream on a day they could be lazy. Naruto knew from his inherited memories that there were many types of quiet that could descend on a settlement and that this was the best kind that could be found. This peaceful quiet was one of several things about Konoha that Naruto grimly noted were worth fighting and even killing for.

* * *

Later that day, Team 10 was led a grimly resolved Fuka to a non-descript building that none of the genins had ever personally been in or seen. There was a guard standing next to the door who spoke up, "Who are you and why are you here?"

Fuka pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to the guard. "I am Jonin Asakawa with my genin students. Team 10 is here for the testing."

The guard looked at the paper Fuka handed him and then pulled out a clipboard to verify what was on the paper with his own notes. He then handed the paper back to Fuka and gave a brief, resigned look at the three genin standing before him. Once Fuka had received her paper, the guard took out a key and unlocked the door. He then gruffly said, "Take the stairway down the hall on your left to level 4 and you'll get to where you need to go."

Team 10 entered the building and heard the door locked behind them by the guard. Fuka then lead a confused Kiba and a worried Sakura down the hall with a resigned Naruto holding the rear of the team. Kiba wanted to know why the team's usual routine had been put on hold today as Fuka only had them do some light cardio even though today was supposed to be a full training day. Sakura was confused too, but her worry was overriding that confusion. She had noticed that both Naruto and Fuka were not happy to be here which couldn't be a good sign. Her inner self summoned the image of a choking canary in a coal mine for a proper comparison of what kind of sign both Naruto and Fuka being resigned to be here was for her.

Level 4 was four flights of stairs down from the entry hall and there was a second guard at the door for level 4 that needed to double check Fuka's papers before Team 10 was allowed entry into the main area of the level. Once past the door, Team 10 quickly noticed the Spartan conditions of this level. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made brick while the only lighting came from regularly spaced lights overhead. All rooms on this level were set up to minimize locations for someone to possibly hide in.

Kiba frowned as he looked at the hallway the team was traveling through and said, "Hey Fuka and Naruto, could you two please fill in why we're here to members of the team who don't have a clue about what is going on?"

Fuka took a few steps in front of her students and then turned around to face them. There was a serious look on her face with the faintest touch of sadness hiding in her eyes. Fuka then said, "You three are here to complete your Final Initiation. The simple truth of the matter is that most ninja kills are caused by a ninja striking quickly with surprise on their side. We also typically operate in small teams which is why large ninja battles are relatively scarce in ninja engagements. However, these facts also mean that a ninja, their team, and their entire mission are at risk if a ninja cannot handle killing someone. This is especially true if someone has to kill another in cold blood."

"The three of you have had a conditioning course previously in the Academy to help you cope with the mental difficulties in taking life. As you should recall, many of your fellow students dropped out of the Ninja Academy because of that course. You all passed the basic conditioning course and that is a good thing for your careers. However, nothing can truly prepare you for taking another human life."

Fuka paused for a second before she continued. "To insure that neither you nor your teammates die from you dealing with the effects of killing someone for the first time your first kills will be happening shortly. A condemned prisoner has been brought from the capital gallows so that you all can experience your first kill while seeing that the Fire Daimyo's justice is carried out. There isn't much advice I can offer you all for dealing with what you are about to do. Your instructors at the Academy covered the array of emotions you will feel when you take a life and how to deal with those emotions. Once you complete the execution your duties will be done for the day and the rest of the week has been cleared to help you deal with this. I will say this, do not feel guilty about carrying out the sentence. Each and every prisoner brought here has been condemned for their actions. If you do not carry out the sentence then I will do so in your place."

With that said, Fuka led her students to a door and opened it to reveal a guard station in front of a cell block. The guard at the station asked Fuka for her papers and quickly read them. He then said, "There is a special order regarding Team 10. Genin Inuzuka and Genin Haruno are to draw their duties as usual. However, Genin Uzumaki's duty has been preselected for him."

Fuka frowned and inquired, "What is the reason for this derivation?" In the Final Initiation, genin usually grabbed a ball with a cell number written on it to determine which criminal they'd have to execute. Executing a criminal was never easy for a genin mentally or emotionally unless they were a budding psychopath which had its own special training issues for said psychopath's sensei. However, the ninjas of Konoha found that the trauma was less to a regular genin in question if the criminal involved was of a more unsavory sort. It's simply easier, but still difficult, for someone to justify emotionally the need to put down a serial killer verses someone who killed someone in a drunken bar fight. Sadly for the genin, most of the criminals brought in for execution in the Final Initiation tended to favor the doing something in a fit of passion or drunken stupidity rather than the cold blooded harden criminal side of the scale. The later generally would not let themselves be captured alive or tended to have accidents on the way to prison.

Back in the Shodai's time when shinobi started using the daimyo's criminals instead of a captured bandit, a kidnapped member of a rival clan, or even the bought child of a poor family the selection of who got what criminal became a big point of contention. Most parents wanted the most unsavory criminals for this children to reduce their mental anguish. Harashirama chose to make the selection via lottery in order to be fair to all the genin. Even those with an active dojutsu wouldn't be able to check since they wouldn't know which criminal was in which cell so grabbing a particular ball for its number was pointless.

The guard grimaced and answered Fuka. "One of our selected duties was sentenced by a gallows court." Sentencing by a gallows court was a common phrase to mean that a prisoner's fellow cell mates had deemed his or her crimes to be too heinous and executed that prisoner themselves. After a second's pause, the guard continued explaining things. "A substitute was selected and sent with the other duties. Given the substitute's circumstances, it was deemed that Naruto was the best genin to handle this duty."

After saying this, the guard pulled out a clipboard with a piece of paper containing the info on the convict Naruto was supposed to execute. The condemned Tuptim was a 17 year old concubine that had belonged to one of the more influential nobles in the Daimyo's court. Tuptim had been caught in a flagrantly compromising position with a young monk that worked at a temple. The paper didn't have any information on the monk in question, and why should it have that information since the paper was Tuptim's, but Naruto knew it wouldn't be pleasant. If the monk was lucky he would just be executed. If the noble in question was feeling really vindictive, the monk would be thrown out of his temple, whipped, castrated, and then killed in a particularly sadistic manner.

It was immediately apparent to Naruto why he had been earmarked to handle Tuptim's execution. She was the worst possible choice for a genin undergoing the Final Initiation to have to deal with. He was the best choice for such a duties because he had experienced the Final Initiation several times through is kekkei genkai. Naruto could see the Hokage's reasoning and even agreed with it. However, that didn't change the fact that this sucked for him.

* * *

All three genin of Team 10 were emotionally drained and walking wearily as they left Konoha's prison complex. Sakura's face was pale as porcelain and she was leaning on Naruto as she walked. Kiba's hands were shaking slightly while Akamaru was nuzzling the boy's leg to comfort his partner. Naruto's posture was normal, but his eyes revealed the boy's pain and the age of his combined inherited memories.

Fuka walked in front of the genin trio and quietly said, "All three of you have done your duty like you are supposed to do as shinobi. As I stated earlier, you have completed your duties for the day and have authorized paid leave for the rest of the week. You leave is just for this week so I expect every one of you to report to our training ground at the usual time on Monday."

The Jonin's eyes and posture relaxed and allowed her concern to be seen by the genin. Fuka continued on saying. "If you need to talk to someone about what you did today you can talk to me. I won't lie to you, it's going to take some time for the three of you to cope with what you had to do today and that is a good thing. Killing another human being should never be an easy thing for anyone. It's a necessary evil in this world. However, you should get no pleasure from doing this and your only solace should be in knowing that you were competent enough to end the enemy's life as painlessly as you could in the given circumstances."

With that said, Fuka waited a few minutes to see if any of her students would want to talk to her. After a minute it became obvious that none of her students were going to approach her at the moment. She then sighed and said, "Have a quiet and peaceful day from this point on you three. Once again, let me repeat that you can talk to me at any time, good day you three." Fuka bowed her head and then left her students.

The three genins stood around in the same spot where their sensei had said her goodbyes long after she had disappeared from their sight. Kiba got his shaking under control and started to walk away. He took a few steps and then turned to look at his teammates. "Guys," Kiba called out to get Naruto and Sakura's attention. He continued when the duo turned their heads to look at him. "I'm going to head home. Hopefully mom knows a way to help me wrap my head around what we had to do. I mean, I knew that we'd have to kill someone eventually. However, I never really thought that it would happen so soon."

Both Sakura and Naruto nodded their heads and then watched as Kiba left with Akamaru. Naruto thought about leaving as well to head to one of the temples and pray for some peace of mind. However, he didn't leave because Sakura was using him to keep standing. Naruto decided to keep silent and let Sakura lean on him as long as she needed someone to lean on given the circumstances. Silence reigned over the duo for a minute before the sound of a sniffle overthrew the silence. Naruto looked to his left and saw Sakura starting to cry into his arm.

After taking a second to mind his genetic memories for advice, Naruto pulled Sakura into a hug and let her cry into his chest. Sakura's cries didn't attract more than a passing glance from some older shinobi as they walked down the relatively empty street. No one could fault a genin who had most likely just gone through their Final Initiation from crying. Most of the older shinobi either had broken down in tears themselves or knew someone close who broke down in tears when they had undergone their Final Initiation. In the end, it didn't really matter to the older shinobi so they decided to just give Sakura her space in order to lessen her embarrassment.

Naruto's shirt was drenched in tears when Sakura finally regained her control. A rosy blush covered Sakura's cheeks as she looked up at Naruto. "Sorry for getting your shirt wet Naruto." As she said this she pulled back a bit so that the two of them were within arm's length of each other.

This comment earned Sakura a light chuckle from Naruto. "It's no problem Sakura. My shirts have had far worse done to them in training. Besides," he paused for a second to tug on the damp cloth, "is why someone invented dryers."

It was not Sakura's turn to chuckle from Naruto's comment. She looked at Naruto with a ghost of a smile on her lips for a second and her eyes puffy from the tears. The aged and sad look in Naruto's eyes caused Sakura to ask, "It doesn't get easier does it?"

Naruto shook his head and replied, "The feelings your feeling don't get less the more you have to kill in the line of duty. However, with time and practice you will gain a better ability to cope with what you're feeling."

Sakura nodded her head and then said, "I need to go Naruto. Thank you for helping me on this issue, but I'm going to need some time by myself." She then bowed her head and left for her home.

* * *

Monday came and Team 10 assembled again in their usual location. Fuka looked at her students and was pleased to see that their moods and temperaments had vastly improved over where they had been last week after the Final Initiation. They weren't in perfect shape, but they were good enough that they could handle basic duties for the time being. Fuka had kept her eyes on all three of her students during their week off to make sure that they were coping with their first kill in a healthy manner.

Naruto had handled everything in a reasonable manner just like Fuka expected him to do. The jonin didn't write the boy off as easily being able to cope. However, his Aima Sophia did give him a massive advantage in coping with the stresses of the ninja life. Kiba had some difficulties at first fully coping with fact that he had killed someone. As part of Kiba's difficulties he had started to fall into a bit of funk over what he had done. Tsume had used an old family remedy to help knock Kiba out of that funk of dropping Kiba off at a bordello for a few hours and picked him up later deliberately not asking him what he had done.

Sakura had come to Fuka for some help in coping with the after effects of the Final Initiation. The girl's friendly nature made it hard for her to cope with her actions and her mother couldn't offer any advice. Kizashi Hurano might have been able to help given his background as a shinobi. However, he was out of the village on securing a new supply route for his store. Fuka had taken Sakura to an orphanage and had her help out with the young children there to bring everything into perspective for the young genin. There was death in the world, but there was also life.

Fuka gave her students a once over and then said, "It's good to see you all are here on time. I was honestly expecting you all to be here on time. However, genin have been known to be a little late after dealing with the Final Initiation. None of you will have that late mark on your record so that puts you ahead of many in your graduating cohort."

"Now that any issues regarding your possible tardiness have been laid to rest it is time to return to regular duties. Today is one of our training days and I intend for all of us to get a full workout. Hopefully, none of you slacked off in your training while on break last week." Fuka then unsealed the practice weights and grabbed her set of weights. The genins grabbed their sets as well so that practice could start.

During the morning part of practice, Fuka kept a firm eye on her students as she always did. Kiba and Naruto were in great shape not showing any signs of being out of practice. They had stay on top of their independent training which made Fuka proud. Sakura was in good physical condition, but it was obvious to the Jonin's trained eyes that the junior kunoichi on the team hadn't practiced as much as she should have over the break. Fuka could see that Sakura had done some training which was more than Fuka could say about herself when she had dealt with her Final Initiation.

Some tolerance was needed as Jonins expected the Final Initiation to make it hard for their genins to keep up their conditioning during their mandatory cool down break. The mandatory cool down break after the Final Initiation also tended to be the first long break that genin teams would get so most genins were not used to handling themselves on break. Kiba's and Naruto's handling of their break more the result of their family background as shinobi clans than anything better in their training over Sakura. From what Fuka knew of Tsume, the woman would never let Kiba get out of the needed training to stay fit on break. No kunoichi mother would risk losing their children to preventable stupidity. As for Naruto, Fuka counted on his kekkei genkei to give him the knowledge that he parents would have imparted to him for this time.

Fuka's after lunch lecture was on training during breaks and recovery periods. During this lecture she explained why the training was necessary and ways that one could train. This lecture also branched into ways one could train while they were undercover. That part of the lecture was only in general concepts to show how the skills they were developing now could be refined in the future. Fuka also included her own past experiences as examples to show why they should make sure to do their training over any breaks.

Naruto and Kiba were surprised after Fuka's lecture when their sensei didn't move on to teaching them a ninjutsu. Instead, Fuka showed them how to hide kunai and shuriken on their persons along with how to rapidly draw those hidden projectiles. It made sense to Sakura since this training was an outgrowth of part of Fuka's lecture earlier. Being able to hide and use weapons would be a valuable skill if they ever needed to go undercover. Sakura was the best at hiding her weapons being able to use the folds of her outfit to great effect. However, it was Kiba who proved to be the best at rapidly drawing a concealed weapon. Kiba attributed this to his practice at sneaking Akamaru table scrapes.

* * *

After the training was over, Fuka asked Naruto to stay behind so she could talk to him. Once she was sure they were alone she said, "Naruto, do you recall the Suzaku Directive thanks to your kekkei genkai?"

Naruto was puzzled for a second and closed his eyes to search his genetic memories. He opened his eyes a few seconds later and sighed. The young genin looked up at his teacher with a somewhat resigned look in his eyes. "I've been placed under the Directive haven't I?"

Fuka nodded her head and said, "That's correct Naruto. I will be bearing your child if you fall in combat. When she is capable, Sakura has been ordered to be my second in this endeavor over my personal objections." Fuka went through a rapid series of handseals and Naruto felt a light brush of chakra coming from Fuka. Her face hardened as she looked around. "Now we are not likely to be disturbed we can go to the next part of why I asked you stay behind. Genin Uzumaki, as your senior officer I'm ordering you to unbuckle your belt and drop your pants along with any undergarments you are wearing to your ankles."

Naruto stared at Fuka in shock at the order unable to believe what he had just heard. Fuka's face hardened as she spoke in a harsh tone. "Did you not hear my orders genin? Drop your clothes so that your genitals are exposed or you will be written up for disciplinary measures. I need to examine you to insure you're capable of fulfilling the Suzaku Directive."

Knowing that Fuka was not joking about being written up, Naruto reluctantly unbuckled his belt and exposed himself to his sensei. Fuka hid her personal disgust and proceeded to examine Naruto's reproductive system. Examining a barely teenage boy's genitals made Fuka feel dirty and brought back dark memories even if there was no legal or social issues with her conducting the examination as Naruto was considered an adult by law. The final test caused Naruto to wince from pain as Fuka used a jutsu on his testes to cause his mature sperm to faintly glow for a few seconds.

Fuka stood up with the tests completed and turned around to give Naruto some privacy. She said in a neutral tone, "The examination is over genin. You may put your clothes back on." Naruto put his pants back on far faster than he had taken them off. The kunoichi used her ears and waited for Naruto to finish getting dressed. She then turned around and saw that Naruto's face was covered in a blush while his eyes had a look of pain and shame in them.

The look in Naruto's eyes caused Fuka's stomach to churn in self-loathing. It reminded Fuka of some terrible undercover missions she had taken in the past. In particular she was reminded of the one where she had to infiltrate and take down a child sex slave ring. That mission was without a doubt the worst one Fuka had done in her career since to maintain her cover as a buyer she had needed to 'test' the merchandise. It took months of psychological therapy for Fuka to get back onto active status after that mission was over. She looked down at Naruto and sighed. "I'm sorry Naruto, but you failed the examination. Your reproductive system is still too immature for even the strongest and restricted kunoichi only jutsu to insure fertilization."

Tears of shame were starting to form in Naruto's eyes as he looked at Fuka. "And just what does my failure in this examination mean?" Memories from some of Naruto's kunoichi ancestors came to his mind as he thought about what Fuka meant by kunoichi only jutsus. The restricted jutsus involving fertility were so labeled because they were meant to only be used to insure that a dying man or even a recently dead corpse's reproductive system worked. Using such jutsus on a healthy man would quickly render him sterile and most likely cause him to die because he could not relieve himself.

Fuka sighed and answered her student. "The result of this examination means that Team 10 will be barred from doing all but the least risky C-Rank missions. This isn't my injunction; this order comes straight from the top. The Aima Sophia may be a potential security risk, but losing it could be catastrophic for Konoha's future. I am also required to examine you once every two weeks from now see when you'll have the ability to participate in the Suzaku Directive."

Naruto's head dropped as he sullenly replied, "I understand." Intellectually Naruto did understand. The Hokage was acting to protect Konoha's interests by making sure that the Aima Sophia kekkei genkai and the Uzumaki bloodline would be around for future generations. The Suzaku Directive was a failsafe if he fell before having children to take his place. However, the failsafe was pointless if he was too young physically to father children. It was also stupid of the Hokage to risk Naruto's life on a mission if Fuka couldn't preserve his bloodline.

While Naruto could intellectually understand, he couldn't accept it emotionally. Fuka's examination, while done in a professional manner, made Naruto feel like cheap goods. It was as if his only value as a ninja was his ability to knock up a brood mare. All of the genetic knowledge granted by Aima Sophia and the logical rationalizations couldn't change what he was feeling at this very moment.

Suddenly, Naruto was surprised to find himself enveloped in a hug from Fuka. The jonin allowed her emotions to slip in her voice as she said, "I'm sorry this has to happen Naruto. Especially, since this happened so soon after your Final Initiation. With Team 10's fundamental genin training nearing completion and you all passing the initiation it's to be expected that we'll start taking higher ranked missions. The Hokage and I needed to know which kinds of C rank missions our team could safely go on."

* * *

Author's note: Sorry for this chapter taking longer than the others to come out. Part of that was simply real life interfering. A large part was that many scenes in this chapter were difficult for me to write. In all honesty, I initially planned to summarize this chapter in just a couple of paragraphs before moving on to Team 10's first C Rank mission. As I wrote those paragraphs out I realized that Team 10's first kills were too important to just summarize leading to this chapter as it is.

I'm fairly confident that I stayed on the teen side of the Teen/Mature divide, but you the viewers feel that this is too close or over that line I will change the story rating. Ninjas deal with some dark stuff, even the manga Naruto doesn't hide the darkness of the ninja world completely with mentions of kids killing friends to graduate, child soldiers in invasions, and even teens being ordered to kill their families. This dark stuff even happens to the heroes and is done by the heroes. For example, the Sound Four are killed by Naruto's friends in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Another example is Shikamaru seeking vengeance for the death of Asuma. There are many good reasons why many characters talk about trying to create a better world than the one under the Shinobi System.


	9. Chapter 9

It was Team 10's day off so Naruto and Kiba had roped some of their friends over to Naruto's place for some fun and games. The old gang of Naruto, Kiba, Shino, Choji, and Shikamaru were sitting at Naruto's table which was loaded with snacks. Naruto grumbled as he looked at his friends, "Come on guys! Why do I always have to be the Battlefield Master whenever we play Battlefields and Bijuus?"

Shikamaru sighed and said, "Troublesome. Naruto, you haven't always been the Battlefield Master whenever we've played B&B. We've all taken a turn being the BM for a campaign. It's just that you're the best BM we have since you're always able to rapidly come up with new ideas or react to whatever dumb shit Kiba tries to do."

At this point Kiba cut in with indignation in his voice. "I do not do dumb shit in our gaming sessions Shikamaru!"

A lazy smirk appeared on Shikamaru's face as he rebutted Kiba. "Oh really, then I suppose your idea to use a level 4 bard to try and lull a level 50 demon to sleep with a rap song? Might I also remind you that your bard character was without his principal musical instrument because an NPC set your lute on fire after a failed attempt to woo the NPC bar owner's daughter?"

Choji stopped snacking to chuckle at the memory and join the conversation. "I remember that session. Didn't Kiba's bard end up getting eaten and we had to spend most of the day trying to find a way to get the demon to regurgitate Kiba. Only, we took too long to secure the vomiting elixir and had to wait a game week for Kiba's character to come out the other end as a level 1 character?"

Shino decided now would be a good time to point out more of Kiba's flaws as a gamer. "Kiba, you typically drive our adventures by causing the party to try and bail you out of mess you cause from our previous efforts to bail you out of a prior mess. Some of this is simply the result of poor dice rolls. However, a large portion was due to a lack of critical thinking on your part. It is generally advisable to not use a fireball spell in a cave filled with unknown gas or to try and steal the evil overlord's amulet of power while the evil overlord is wearing said amulet."

Kiba grumbled as everyone laughed around him. "You all would have been thanking me for reducing the warlord to a wimp if the dice had cooperated." As the laughter died down, Kiba turned to Naruto and spoke again. "All jokes at me aside, you are the best Battlefield Master we've got Naruto. The campaigns are always better when you run them."

Naruto looked at his assembled friends and sighed. Perhaps he shouldn't have used his ability to gain more time to think of responses by briefly entering his mindscape for a few seconds of real time? He then said, "That's just it guys. I do very well with campaigns in B&B. I don't want to be the BM for two reasons. First, I don't particularly feel like being one at the moment. However, the bigger reason is that I don't know how well I'd do running a one shot game session that I put absolutely zero planning in. Things aren't like they were in the Academy when we could schedule sessions around classwork."

That was something that caused all of the young men at the table to frown in thought. Silence filled the gathering of friends at the fact that there were no more guarantees of regular periods when all of them could hang out together. Hell, there wouldn't be a guarantee in the near future that all of them would be alive and healthy in the future. The newest batch of genin was getting closer to their second month in Konoha's forces and there were rumors that C Rank missions would be available to them soon.

Choji spoke up to break up the silence. "I think it would be kind of unfair for Naruto to have to plan everything for a B&B game on such short notice. Besides, we'd spend all day planning the game that we probably wouldn't be able to play it. Why don't we play a game of Anklebiter? Kazuki Takahashi Games has a new variant of Anklebiter that I picked up the other day."

The other guys looked at each other and nodded their heads one by one in agreement. Choji pulled out the deck of cards for Anklebiter and handed it to Naruto. The blonde ninja shuffled the deck for a good minute and then dealt out everyone's starting hands. House Rules were quickly declared and the various players started to use henge to represent the various changes their characters had undergone.

After an hour of play, there was an utterly bizarre array of henges sitting around Naruto's general purpose table. Naruto was currently henged to look like a female bombshell version of himself in fetish fuel armor with an utterly ridiculous oversized spatula on his back. Choji looked like a werewolf. Shikamaru was under an illusion to look like he was wearing a full set of samurai armor. Shino had given himself the appearance of having four more arms and that his body was made of metal. As for Kiba, he had henged to look like his body was wood and one hand looking like it was attached to a flamethrower.

Naruto looked at his friends and said with a smug look on his face, "Okay everyone. I'm fighting a level 17 monster and I've got an attack of 37. Can any of you boost the monster?" The other guys at the table looked at their hands and shook their heads one by one. Naruto's grin grew bigger and he said, "Going once, going twice, and that monster's ass is grass. I now go up a level to level 20 winning me the game."

In the customary manner of the group, Naruto created the illusion of a sign above his head that had 'bow to me bitches' written on it. Everyone else rolled their eyes and sent a quick glare to Kiba who had started this little inane tradition. One by one the friends dropped their henge, got on the floor, and bowed to Naruto with their hands making obscene gestures. Choji was the last one to bow to Naruto since he was in second place. Naruto dropped his henge after Choji's show of submission and said, "Okay guys, what restaurant do you want to deliver to us for takeout? Dinner is on me tonight."

The four friends had a spirited debate for a minute over what restaurant they were going to eat from that night. They soon came to an agreement and Naruto pulled out the takeout menu for the restaurant since it was one of the ones that the group usually chose to go eat at when they were all together. Naruto got everyone's orders, created a kage bunshin, handed the clone some cash, and then sent the clone off to get dinner.

* * *

A week after Naruto's house gathering, Team 10 was assembled in the Hokage's Tower ready to get a mission. Fuka led her team into the mission assignment room and over to where she could browse the C Rank missions. Both Kiba and to a lesser Sakura were secretly hoping to have their first C rank mission. Naruto was ambient about the team getting a C rank mission. Fuka's latest test of Naruto's system had confirmed that his reproductive system had matured enough that his bloodline could be salvaged in a worst case scenario.

Naruto was just happy that he wouldn't have to undergo any more tests and that Fuka tested him in the privacy of her house during her later testing. It was nice that she had apologized for letting her distaste and desire to just get the testing over cause her to test him in the field. That didn't make Fuka's actions any better in Naruto's mind, but it did allow him to understand his sensei's actions. Part of Naruto wished that all of that testing could have been handled by a doctor. However, that would have generated paperwork that was vulnerable to theft. It was best to keep everything on a need to know only basis which only meant Hiruzen, Naruto, and Fuka at the current time.

Fuka looked through the listing of missions and then nodded her head. She led her team over to the administrative ninja who was filing the missions and inquired, "Is the mission request C-545-68721 still open?"

The administrator glanced up at Fuka and Team 10 before consulting his list. After a few seconds he replied, "Mission C-545-68721 has not yet been claimed. This mission was sent in by the commander of the 10th Yari regiment of the 3rd Corps, Lord Hitsugaya. Per a 545 mission request, this mission has been verified through proper channels as an authorized mission for another branch of the Fire Daimyo's military forces. This mission is a C Rank mission request for a team of ninjas to assist Lord Hitsugaya in a series of training exercises to be run for his regiment. Training exercises include sabotage detection, scout detection, and assassination prevention wargames. Expected time of mission is two weeks not counting travel time to get to the 10th regiment's base. Will you be accepting the mission?"

Sakura and Kiba were a bit surprised when they heard the administrator read the mission description and they learned what the mission involved. They weren't surprised at the administrator reading the mission description to them. That was something they were used to since it was done every time a mission was picked out from the available list to make sure there weren't any errors. It was the mission itself that surprised the duo.

As her genin watched, Fuka nodded her head and spoke. "Team 10 under my command will accept the mission." The administrator then handed Fuka the mission packet that contained a copy of the mission parameters as well as instructions on how to get to the 10th's base. Fuka gave the packet a quick once over and then stepped out of the way so that the next set of ninjas could put in their mission request. Team 10 was then lead out of the Hokage Tower by their sensei.

Once outside, Sakura spoke up in a questioning tone. "Sensei, I'm thrilled that you think we are all ready for a C Rank mission. However, isn't this a little outside of our team's abilities?"

Fuka shook her head as she looked at the junior kunoichi on the team. "Not for this mission Sakura. C Rank missions like this are a way for the Army to let their new recruits cut their teeth so to speak on their anti-shinobi tactics. A team of say Chunin or Jonin would just simply overpower the recruits to the point that the recruits wouldn't learn anything useful. After the exercises with us and a few more months additional training the recruits might be ready for the B rank version of this mission. That would involve either Jonins or a team of Chunins who specialize in such actions."

Kiba blinked his eyes in confusion and annoyance. "Wait a minute Sensei. Are you saying that we got this mission because these army punks are too pathetic to handle ninjas who are actually suited to the mission?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and then lightly smacked Kiba on the back of his head. "Use your brain Kiba. We're supposed to help the Army out with a training exercise. It's like when the Chunins would spar with us back in the Academy or when Fuka tests us. You've got to start at a lower level or you won't get anything out of your training. This time we get to be the teachers even if we are learning something at the same time."

Fuka nodded her head in agreement and then took over the conversation getting everything back on track. "Okay you three I need you to listen up. We will be leaving tomorrow at 6 am sharp to head to base starting from our usual training ground. I expect all of you to be there ready to leave without delay. You should plan for a several week long mission when you pack your supplies. Also, you shouldn't forget that there is still the possibility of danger for us once we leave Konoha's Han. We will be staying within the Land of Fire and traveling along well patrolled routes so the possibility of danger is low. However, a low possibility is still a possibility and other villages have been rumored to attack rival nations genin teams under the cover of a bandit group to weaken their rivals."

Both Sakura's and Kiba's eyes widened slightly when they heard that rumor while Naruto got a distant look in his eyes. Culling future enemy shinobi forces was no rumor and Konoha was not blameless in that regard either in the past. All of the Hokages had issued such missions to ANBU operatives in the past. The only good thing about that nasty little secret in Naruto's mind was that such missions had steadily decline since Konoha was founded. By the time Minato had become Hokage culling missions had more become missions of opportunity for agents operating in enemy territory on other missions. It was difficult to determine when an enemy team would be at a particular location where such a mission could be pulled off. A botched culling mission could easily result in a village losing a large amount of reputation and missions.

The jonin then said, "You all have rest of the day to prepare for our mission and to relax before we leave. After you've seen to your supplies I recommend that you have some fun. There little chance of relaxing while on a mission." With that said, Fuka left the trio alone to think about what they each wanted to do for the day.

* * *

It took Team 10 almost 4 days to reach the 10th regiment's base running at a steady pace from dawn until dusk. Fuka didn't have her students run at their absolute fastest since this was a long distance run. However, even Naruto was winded when the team stopped for lunch and dinner each day. This pace was slowed down to a brisk jog when the team was only a few miles from the army base since Fuka didn't want her team to give a bad first impression.

Fuka gave her students a faint nod of pride as they all approached the entrance guard station of the Army base. Naruto's extraordinary stamina had been given enough of a chance to recover any exhaustion he had been feeling prior to the cool down jog. Sakura had put some of her specialized kunoichi training to use and had used her makeup on the run to hide the signs of her exhaustion. There were signs of how tired the young kunoichi was if one knew where to look and spent a bit of time looking. Kiba had some sweat stains, but he had unsealed his backpack from the scroll Naruto had given him at Sakura's suggestion. He now had the excuse of being the team's pack mule for the day to hide why he looked worse for wear compared to the rest of his team.

The only reason Fuka and her students were concerned about their appearance was because of the professional rivalry that shinobi had with the regular army. It was something that all of the military forces had. Both the Shinobis and the Army had a similar rivalry with the Navy. This was the case in most nations. Sometimes, the rivalry between a nation's military forces was a healthy competition while other rivalries were down right toxic. The Land of Fire's military forces favored the friendly competition side of the spectrum.

There were two guards at the guard station at the base's entrance. One of the guards looked to be in his mid-twenties while the other was about the genins' age and looked familiar to Fuka's subordinates. The older guard motioned to the younger guard who promptly gave his elder a salute. Team 10 watched as the younger guard left the guard station and walked towards them. The guard was wearing a lamellar cuirass over a vest with armored sleeves. On his head was a jingasa that looked to be made from leather. Both the armor and the jingasa were painted in the traditional red and black pattern used by the Land of Fire. His armament was a Yari that he loosely held in one hand and a wakizashi that was in its sheath on his belt.

With a cheerful and slightly enthusiastic tone in his voice, the guard spoke up. "Halt and identify yourselves."

Fuka took a step forward and said, "I am Jonin Asakawa in command of Genin Team 10 of Konoha here at the request of Lord Hitsugaya per Mission C-545-68721 that he sent in. With me are my subordinates Genin Uzumaki, Genin Inuzuka, and Genin Haruno who comprise Genin Team 10. We require entrance into this base and request a meeting with Lord Hitsugaya so that our mission can begin."

A frown appeared on the ashigaru's face for a split second before he nodded his head and said, "Let me check with Sergeant Hojo to verify that you are who you say you are." The young foot soldier then walked back to the guard post and talked with the now named sergeant who was still manning the guard post. The two ashigaru talked among themselves for a few minutes while consulting several clipboards.

Team 10 silently waited for the ashigaru to verify their right to be here. Kiba and Sakura were wondering what on earth was taking the duo so long to do their duty. Naruto and Fuka were wondering if this delay was possibly a power play on the ashigarus' part. It wouldn't be the first time that a member of the armed forces did something to inconvenience someone from a different branch as a minor game of one-upmanship. The best thing to do in that kind of situation, if this was a small power play, was to ignore the inconvenience. If things took too long then a backhanded compliment was a good way to put the offender in his or her place.

Finally, the ashigaru were able to find the notice of the expected arrivals of konoha ninjas. Sergeant Hojo got out of his guard post and approached the shinobi team. The sergeant gave Fuka a respectful bow and said, "Sorry about the delay Jonin Asakawa. Our itinerary had your ETA at some time tomorrow or possibly even Thursday for that mission."

Fuka nodded her head accepting the apology. "That's understandable. We were able to claim the mission shortly after it was posted in Konoha. A little padding is to be expected in the time estimate since one never knows what types of teams will be available when a mission arrives at Konoha. Can we see to meeting with Lord Hitsugaya and then the billeting of my team?"

Sergeant Hojo nodded his head and then pointed to his fellow ashigaru. "Private Rock can see to it that you're escorted to the guest lodging on base. I'll send a message up the chain to notify Lord Hitsugaya that you are here. The commander is supposed to be preforming a major inspection of the armory and forges today so he is not likely to get to seeing you for several hours."

The Konoha ninjas nodded their heads in agreement as Sergeant Hojo went to inform Private Rock of his duties. They watched as the two soldiers quickly and quietly talked for a minute. Private Rock then walked forward and said, "Follow me to your quarters."

Team 10 quietly followed Private Rock pass the guard station and through the outer walls of the base. A quick look at the base revealed that it was the standard setup for a Land of Fire military base. Immediately after the main defensive walls were open spaces that were marked off as training fields. Several of the training fields were occupied with companies of ashigaru that were going through different drills.

Private Rock was leading Team 10 down one of the paths through the training when Sakura asked a question. "Private Rock, would you mind telling me if you've ever been to Konoha or not? It's just that I could have sworn I've seen your face before, but I just can't place it."

A glum look crossed Private Rock's face as he answered Sakura's question. "I'm from Konoha." That statement killed any chance of further conversation between the ashigaru and the shinobis. No one from Konoha started out wanting to join the Army as an ashigaru. If someone had it would have been the talk of the village. The only way Private Rock could end up in the Army was if he washed out of the Academy or was part of the daimyo's tithe. This made things rather awkward for trying to start a conversation.

Shortly after the conversation died, the group of shinobis' with their escort exited the training zone and entered the area of the base where most of the buildings were located. The group was escorted past several rows of barracks and led down a path that led to small houses with tiny front yards. Both Sakura and Kiba were a bit surprised at this sudden change in the base layout. However, both Naruto and Fuka knew that they were now in Samurai country. As befitted their station as officers in the army, the samurai had their own private homes where their families lived. Several young children could be seen playing in a few of the yards.

The shinobi were lead to one of the smaller houses closer to the training fields. Private Rock turned to Team 10 at the front of the house and said, "This is the guest quarters that has been set aside for you while you are on your mission." He then pulled out a key and handed it to Fuka. Once Fuka had the key he pointed down one of the roads. "The Commissary is that way three blocks on your right. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my post."

Fuka nodded her head and said, "Understood Private Rock. We can handle things here for ourselves. You are dismissed and may return to your post." Private Rock gave Fuka a salute and left the team in front of their quarters for the next week.

* * *

Sakura cheerfully hummed to herself as she lathered up her hair in the shower which was perfectly hot and steamy. Getting from Konoha to this base had taken the team four days of long sweaty running from sun up to sun down with no access to showers or any other way to get clean. It wasn't Sakura's first time going without an evening shower to freshen up after a long day of work. That joyful experience happened back in the Academy with a weeklong outdoor survival training exercise. Of course, that had been worse for Sakura since she had needed to spend time with over 100 other students who were covered in sweat and grim.

There were ways to help deal with getting dirty out in the field. Deodorizers and a quick wipe down of the limbs with a damp washrag helped keep things manageable for the trip. If there had been any on the route and if the time allowed it the team could have visited a bathhouse. Or, and this was a possibility that Sakura was hoping to hold off on as long as possible, the team could have used a river or lake to bathe in. The idea of bathing in water that had only kami knows what in it did not match Sakura's idea of getting clean.

Finally satisfied with how clean she was, Sakura turned off the hot water and exited the shower filling the small bathroom with steam. The young kunoichi quickly dried off and then wrapped a towel around herself to preserve her modesty. She grabbed her dirty clothes after her towel was secured. Sakura then exited the bathroom, took a few steps down the hall, and entered her cramp assigned room. She closed the door and changed into her only remaining set of fresh clothes. The dirty clothes Sakura had been wearing before were added to the pile of laundry from her travel pack.

Now dressed for success, Sakura exited her temporary room and called out, "Hey Fuka! I'm going to get my laundry started now."

Fuka shouted back, "Hold it right there missy!" Sakura blinked her eyes several times in surprise and confusion at Fuka's response. This gave the jonin the time to walk over to where Sakura was standing. Fuka put her hands on her hips and said with a cross look on her face, "Your laundry is going last in the rotation Sakura."

A puzzled look appeared on Sakura's face. "Why sensei? I can understand if you want to claim first use of the washer, but why am I going to do my laundry last? Kiba and Naruto are out at the Commissary picking up groceries. They're not going to be back for a while so wouldn't it delay things if I wait for them to do their laundry first?"

With annoyance in her tone, Fuka quickly answered her confused pupil. "Laundry is going to be delayed because you used up all of the hot water in the tank Sakura! Remember, this isn't your home in Konoha. This is guest house for relatively low priority guests at a regular military base. Luxuries like large amounts of hot water come at a premium here. Thanks to that shower of yours the hot water tank will likely take an hour to refill."

The pinkette's cheeks gained a rosy hue as Fuka verbally laid into her. Sakura lowered her head to look at her feet and put her hands together behind her back. "Sorry about this Sensei. I swear that I won't do this again."

Fuka gave Sakura a hard look for a few seconds and then said, "Apology accepted Sakura. It was an honest mistake. I know that you rarely repeat mistakes after they've been pointed out to you and your punishment has already been declared so there is not much more that needs to be said to you about this. However, I do have a bit of advice for you Sakura. Next time you should either take shorter showers or you should grab one of the boys to shower with you in order to conserve water."

As Fuka expected, Sakura's face snapped up into view now red as a tomato. "What?" Sakura let out a half shriek half yell of surprise. "How can you suggest such a thing sensei?"

There was a mischievous and slightly bittersweet look in Fuka's eyes as she watched her student dance to the tunes she was calling out for Sakura to play. The girl still had so much to learn about being a woman in general and more particularly about being a kunoichi. Fuka sent up a silent plea to the kami to give Sakura the time needed to grow into everything at her own pace instead of forcing the lessons on her too soon. This was one of Fuka's common pleas that she sent up in regards to her students. She had been planning on broaching this subject once the mission was over, but now was a good enough time.

Sakura was about to go into a rant when the older kunoichi put to fingers to her student's lips. Fuka waited a moment and then removed her fingers from Sakura's mouth. Those fingers were then used to loosen Fuka's belt slightly. She then brought the hand up to the front of her blouse and pulled on it to reveal her right breast to Sakura. The genin could see that her sensei had a built in bra cup sown into her blouse and that the woman's breast was fully exposed.

The jonin brought her other hand up and pointed to her breast. She then said in a lecturing tone. "This is one of the weapons that nature has given to us as kunoichis. There aren't too many men who can avoid being distracted by a sexy woman's body. However, in order to use it a kunoichi must become confident in their looks and either learn to ignore their shame or get rid of it entirely."

Fuka paused her lectured for a moment to close up her blouse and then she continued to explain things to Sakura. "Wanting to protect your modesty is a virtue for most women. However, to kunoichi this virtue becomes a potentially deadly vice. If your clothes get damaged in combat, which they likely will, you cannot stop fighting to cover up. Let's say you are barely able to doge a shuriken from an enemy on the side, but it cuts your shirt like this." Fuka paused to run a finger over the top of her blouse near her breasts.

She then continued knowing she had Sakura's attention. "Think for a moment what a cut like that is going to do to your outfit Sakura. Part of your bra will almost certainly be exposed. Depending on the style of outfit you wear you might have your entire bra exposed or even have your girls freely swinging. What are you going to do in combat in this circumstance? Even if you use just one arm to hold up your shirt you've lost the ability use the vast majority of ninjutsu, most genjutsu, and most taijutsu styles will be hampered. A simple distraction weapon would just cripple you in a fight mean you will be beaten and killed if you're lucky."

A chill filled the room with the two kunoichis as the full implications of what Fuka told Sakura hit the younger ninja. The two of them had talked about the unique problems that kunoichi faced if captured by the enemy before. However, it hadn't really hit Sakura just how easily she could be defeated and subjected to that kind of treatment. Sakura might not be the best fighter in her graduation cohort. But, she was competent for her age and experience.

Sakura looked Fuka in the eyes allowing the older woman to see the hint of fear in her eyes. She then nervously said, "How do I avoid that?"

The jonin put a comforting hand on the young teen's shoulder and replied, "As I said, you must become confident in your looks and learn to deal with your sense of shame. I know that it sounds like something easier said than done to you. However, I'm here to help you through the process and insure that you thrive as a kunoichi."

"First, let's talk about your looks Sakura. You're a very cute girl and you show all the signs that you'll be an attractive if not beautiful young woman in the future. It may not always seem like that you since you're growing and comparing your looks to older women like myself. Don't try to deny it because I was there when I was your age. There is a fact that you can use to give yourself confidence in your looks. No kunoichi that took her training seriously has ever been ugly outside of massive battle scars. There have been some plain kunoichi, but the training we undergo insures that our bodies stay in shape and almost all men find that sexy."

Sakura thought about that fact and nodded her head in agreement. None of the kunoichis she saw around the village were ugly. She then asked, "What's next sensei?"

Fuka smiled and answered, "What's next as you put it is learning to get rid of or to ignore your sense of shame. Despite my teasing earlier, jumping to the shower with one of your teammates isn't something to do at your age or level of training. Kunoichi train to handle their shame through a series of stages. The first stage of the training will involve you sparing in a bikini usually with another young kunoichi. I'm thinking of trying to rope your friend Ino in for this to help you. After you're comfortable with fighting both men and women in a skimpy swimsuit the next step to spar topless. This is typically done with another kunoichi or with one's boyfriend. A variant of this stage is for the kunoichi to work for a few weeks as a dancer in a strip club. However, that is usually favored by the kunoichis who are going into seduction/infiltration careers since the clubs give them extra skills useful for their careers. Finally, the training is considered complete when the kunoichi can spar while fully nude."

There was a slight look of disbelief in Sakura's eyes when Fuka told her this. Fuka smiled and said, "I might not want to fight buck naked, but if I can then I don't have to worry about wardrobe malfunctions hindering my combat abilities. Now, why don't you take a minute or two so you can relax? The boys should be back soon and I doubt you want them to asking you why your face is so red."

* * *

Author's note: Happy Memorial Day everyone. Sorry this chapter took so long to come out, but other hobbies had calls on my time. Yes, Private Rock is Lee that we all know and love from canon Team Guy. Love the guy as a character; however, I could never understand how he could be in the Shinobi Forces. In the real world, people with disabilities that prevent them from fulfilling their expected duties cannot serve in the military. How could Lee with his inability to use charka which is a basic necessity to be a ninja in Naruto be allowed to stay on the force? More to the point, how could he even become a ninja since he wouldn't be able to pass the initial canon test that gave Naruto so many problems.


	10. Chapter 10

Lord Hitsugaya was seated at the head of a small nondescript conference table in a rather simple meeting room. Team 10 sat opposite him with Fuka sitting at the foot of the table, the boys on her right, and Sakura on her left. With the exception of a petty officer acting as scribe, there was no one else in the room for the meeting. It was a silent show of trust on Lord Hitsugaya's part to the shinobi to not have a few guards inside the room with him. There were the customary two ashigarus standing guard outside the conference room door.

The commander gave a respectful nod of his head to Fuka and said, "Thank you for coming so quickly to handle my request with your team Jonin Asakawa. I apologize for not being able to greet you and conduct this briefing yesterday when you arrived."

Fuka shook her head in a polite and subtle manner. "No apologies are necessary Lord Hitsugaya. You had no way to precisely determine when we would arrive and it would presumptuous of us to demand a meeting with you upon our arrival. We are here to help you at your discretion."

A flicker of a smile briefly appeared on the commander's face when he heard Fuka say that. Too many shinobi in his opinion had an overinflated sense of themselves and their own importance. They forgot that Samurai used chakra as well and that in a straight up fight a Samurai will more often than not kill an equally skilled shinobi up until the B ranks. Training and philosophical outlooks meant that shinobi were better suited for guerrilla warfare and espionage roles. Samurai training was suited to creating strong warriors of relatively uniform abilities.

While Samurai training was great for creating the core and the leadership of a regular army, it did have its limitations. Past the B ranking, it was far harder for the Samurai to advance their abilities on the generalized threat scale than shinobi. There were far more A rank ninjas than there were A rank samurai in both absolute numbers and percentages of their respective forces. Furthermore, the shinobi training overtook the samurai training at the higher level with an A rank shinobi more often than not being able to kill one of the rare A rank samurai. As for S rank samurai, those legendary warriors were as scarce as hen's teeth. Mifune of Iron Country was the only samurai in a generation to have been rumored to have reached such a status.

Lord Hitsugaya calmly continued his briefing after he accepted Fuka's response to his apology. "As I stated in the mission request, I need to have my troops trained in anti-asymmetrical protocols including sabotage detection, scout detection, and assassination prevention to name a few of the protocols. To help the realism of these war games, the training exercises are to be conducted under single-blind conditions."

All the genin of Team 10 turned to look at Fuka silently asking her a variant of the same question with their eyes. Both Sakura's and Kiba's showed that they wanted to voice their questions while Naruto's face was stoic. Protocol dictated that genin remain silent unless spoken to in this kind of meeting between military leaders. Fuka politely asked, "How are the single-blind conditions of the training exercises to be conducted?"

The commander of the 10th Yari regiment pulled out several folders and gently slid them down the table to Fuka. He then said, "There are five variations in these folders which were prepared by the 3rd Corps Command. Most of the exercises inside are the same, but there are one or two exercises that are different among each of the folders. The order that the exercises are to be conducted is unknown to my staff or me. You are to review them after this meeting and conduct the exercises in the order given. After each exercise is complete you will fill in the accompanying report and turn it in to one of my aids. Notices will be periodically sent into Command that will verify that the exercises in the chosen packet were followed."

Fuka nodded her head and selected one of the packets. She then showed the packet to the petty officer so he could record the packet number. Once the packet was recorded, Fuka sealed it in a storage seal. There was no reason to open it now. She then asked, "Do you have any further requests with this mission Lord Hitsugaya?"

The commander nodded his head and said, "I do have one request. I would like you to start conducting the exercises in the next two or three days if possible. I know you will need some time to observe the base in order to accurately fulfill the exercises listed by Command. However, I do wish to complete this training as quickly as possible so that the new ashigaru can move on to the next stage of their training."

Lord Hitsugaya received a polite nod from Fuka in reply before she spoke. "Understood sir, my team and I will make our necessary observations as quickly as possible so that we can start on the exercises."

There was silence for a moment as the two officers waited to see if the other had anything else to add. Lord Hitsugaya stood up after the moment passed and politely said, "That concludes our meeting Jonin Asakawa. Thank you for arriving so promptly and I hope these training exercises will go off without any serious issues."

* * *

Private Azuma Kazuma was carrying a very large bag of flour as he walked down the street of the base with a smile on his face. Azuma idly wondered what kind of bread the base's new guests from Konoha would like to eat. The base's grapevine was buzzing with the arrival of the genin team from Konoha who were going to be participating in a series of training exercises with soldiers on base. What those training exercises could be was up to speculation. In the past day, Azuma had probably overheard two dozen different supposed exercises they could be put through with several variations to each rumor.

All of this didn't matter to the young private since he worked in the mess hall as a cook. Azuma did some basic training and weapons practice like all non-combatants had to do in order to keep fit and know how to react in an emergency. However, the young man's real passion was cooking. He joined the army as a way to leave his small home town and gain some experience in life and as a chef. Once his term of service was up in a decade, Azuma planned to return to his home town with his experiences and open up a massive bakery.

Everything came crashing down around Azuma after he entered the mess hall and was unexpectedly pulled to the side. A cloth covered hand reached out before the chef could realize what was going on and covered his nose and mouth. Panic started to fill Azuma's heart as he was held in place and his nose was filled with a sweet smell. The baker tried to shift his bag of flour to get some sort of advantage over his assailant. However, his attacker seemed to have grown a third arm and held the bag of flour in place without relaxing his grip on Azuma. Soon the chloroform in the cloth overcame Azuma sending him into unconsciousness.

Both Kiba and Naruto were standing behind Azuma with each genin using one arm to hold their target in place. Kiba was using his other hand to hold the cloth that was covering Azuma's mouth. At the same time, Naruto was using his other hand to keep the flour bag from falling. The duo felt Azuma go limp in their grasp and turned their heads to confirm that other had also felt it. Naruto let go of Azuma and grabbed the bag of flour off of the unconscious man while Kiba shifted his grip to keep the man from falling. The duo carried the flour and the cook to a closet where Sakura was waiting while Fuka was a few feet away from Sakura as the team's lookout.

Azuma was carefully laid on the floor next to the closet so that Sakura could get a good look at the young chief. Kiba became part of the team's lookouts while Naruto pulled out two prepared seals. The first seal with the size of a post-it note piece of paper. The other second seal was written on an extra-long letter sized piece of paper Naruto looked up at Sakura and then spoke to her using Konoha's battle sign language, "See everything?"

Sakura nodded her head in response to Naruto's question. This nod was answered by Naruto placing the smaller seal on Azuma's throat and activating it. The seal imprinted Azuma's vocal cords into its matrix after a few seconds and then it was removed by Naruto. He handed the seal to Sakura who flipped the paper to the other side and put it on her neck over her own vocal cords. The minute amount of chakra she'd have to use to keep the paper in place would activate the seal. This seal would create a powerful and hard to detect genjutsu that would make Sakura sound like Azuma. Many people who were adept at genjutsus could do the same thing without a seal.

However, Sakura and the boys didn't have that kind of skill with genjutsu yet. Sakura gave Azuma one last look to make sure she hadn't missed a detail and then used the henge to transform her looks into Azuma. The real cook was then sealed away by Naruto into the seal on the large paper he was holding. Sakura grabbed the bag of flour while Azuma was being sealed. She then had Naruto double check her to make sure that the flour hadn't disrupted or distorted her illusion. After Naruto gave Sakura his all clear she glanced to Kiba and Fuka to confirm that they didn't see anything wrong.

The non-disguised members of Team 10 made themselves scarce as Sakura walked down to the kitchen. Sakura opened the kitchen door and saw a squad of cooks hurriedly working to prepare lunch for the army. The head chef spotted Sakura and called out, "Private Kazuma! What in Yama's asshole caused you to take so long getting a simple bag of flour?"

Sakura quickly replied, "Some of the boys were giving me hassles at the storehouse sir. It seems that some of the newbies thought that the shinobi were going to mess with our supplies." That earned a round of chuckles from the various cooks who could easily believe a greenhorn or two doing something like that. Sakura then continued, "Were there any task changes given how long I was forcefully delayed?"

One of the nearby cooks shook his head and replied, "No Azuma. Your roll dough is still where you left it in the mixer. Hope that flour lasts you through all of the other batches you need to make up since we don't want your roles on hold for lunch. They're the part that the boys don't complain about!"

Sakura followed the cook's eyes to see where Azuma had been working. Armed with this knowledge, she walked over to the work station and began to work on the rolls. A previous look at the mess hall had revealed a weekly schedule so Sakura knew what kind of rolls to make. She was so grateful that Fuka had suggested looking at things like that when the team started to plan this exercise. Azuma apparently didn't need cook books to make bread so Sakura wouldn't have a clue what he was working on without that fact. Even the best infiltration expert would be caught if they didn't have a clue what their cover was supposed to be doing and Sakura knew she wasn't even in the top 100 kunoichi for that list.

The genin's ancestors were really pulling overtime for her because the rolls on the menu were actually something Sakura knew how to bake. She worked on the rolls while keeping an eye discreetly on the cooks. Sakura fished a small bottle out of her outfit and hid it among the spices in her workstation. After a few minutes passed she opened the bottle and added a bit of its contents to the dough. Sakura worked her special additive throughout the dough as she kneaded it.

Once Sakura was done kneading the dough, she turned it into hundreds of rolls and put the rolls on trays already set with cooking parchment. Each time a tray was filled she took a moment to add it to a baking rack that was six feet tall. Sakura filled two and a half baking racks before she got to the last of the dough. She made it look like she was checking the spacing of the rolls as she prepared herself to cast another strong genjutsu.

A critical problem with assuming someone's identity is just how easy it is to reveal that something is wrong to people who regularly interact with the person whose identity you've taken. When Sakura and her teammates concocted this plan they figured that anyone would start to be suspicious if someone they knew started to act differently. Practically everyone knew that ninjas had jutsus that could make them look like other people. Everyone on the base also knew that a team of shinobi had been brought in to test them on tests that only the shinobi knew were going to happen. Every time Sakura interacted with people who knew Azuma she risked giving herself away.

This was where the genjutsu she was preparing came in. It would make a person talking to the caster think that they were talking to a friend that the caster was looking like as they always did. This genjutsu was at the limits of Sakura's current abilities and it would break down if she had to hold too many people or kept it up for any real length of time. She had to use it just enough to get the rolls baked and then return to the shadows until the mission was complete. The team had a Plan B that would work given how far things had gone already. However, it would be a personal failure to the girl if they had to switch now.

Sakura picked her target after a quick scan revealed that everyone else in the kitchen was busy with something else. She walked up to one of the cooks and said while casting the genjutsu with her hands hidden under her apron, "I need to bake the rolls."

The cook's eyes were unfocused for a moment as the genjutsu worked its illusion. He then said, "No problem Azuma. Oven 3 is free so go ahead and use it." It was a good thing for Sakura that all of the other chiefs were too busy with their own tasks to pay attention to her. Part of her was certain she would have been found out otherwise. Sakura passed the time waiting for her rolls to finish by scrubbing down her work station. She got the rolls out when the timer rang and calmly put the rolls in the mess hall tubs that were going to go out for lunch.

Soon everyone was busy as the troops started to pour into the mess hall starving for lunch. Sakura was given the duty of running tubs of prepared meals to the serving line as all the other cooks focused on feeding the soldiers. Sakura waited until the lunch rush started to die down and extracted herself from the kitchen by claiming to need the visit the restroom.

* * *

The fallout from the first training exercise was not pretty for anyone to see or smell. The highly concentrated laxatives stopped all training and all but the absolute minimum sentry duty for the rest of the day. Only the Samurai who had a different kitchen to prepare their meals and several squads who had previously been doing exercises during the regular lunch time were spared the constant diarrhea brought on by Team 10's attack.

As bad as it was for the regular ashigaru, their suffering was nothing next to the roasting that Lord Hitsugaya laid into the cooking staff that evening as he changed the menu to rump roast extra crispy. Fuka's report had shown several points where her team's infiltration was nearly exposed if the cooks had been paying more attention. There were also two points where a different interior patrol pattern could have spotted something wrong. Those temporary holes would be removed once a new and better patrol pattern could be devised to handle asymmetrical threats. The minor gaps in the current patrol pattern were brief and only noticeable to someone already in the base observing patrols. Furthermore, the gaps were only exploitable to someone who could move freely throughout the base unless the person wanted to be seen. They were therefor deemed to not merit any form of punishment for the planners.

Unfortunately for the cooks, they didn't have any sort of mitigating circumstances to appease Lord Hitsugaya's wraith. The head of the cooks tried to argue that his men were non-combat staff which only made things worse. That NCO was stripped of his rank, fined half of his pay for the next year, and thrown into the stocks for 30 days. All of the cooks had to go remedial genjutsu detection training and remedial situational awareness training. After that training, every cook but Azuma was fined half a month's pay and had their leave privileges revoked for the next month. The cooks also had to deal with looks of distrust and annoyance from everyone else on the base. Lord Hitsugaya had released information on what Team 10's first mission was and the fact that an enemy ninja team could have just as easily used deadly poison instead of laxatives.

The grilling of the cooking staff wasn't a major concern to Team 10. They had filed their reports about the first exercise and moved on to the next one. However, the genin members of the team did enjoy the new looks of respect laced with a touch of fear given to them. Sakura and Kiba were a little annoyed at the fear they saw in the ashigarus' eyes. However, Fuka explained that it was a perfectly normal reaction for the green ashigaru who realized just how easily they could be killed in war. That realization was then pounded into the soldiers' heads by Team 10 through the ambush exercise.

Team 10 entered the guest house they were staying at as the sun was setting over the horizon. Everyone on the team was covered in leaves, mud, sweat, and the occasional twig. There were smiles on everyone's face for a job well done now that they could cross off the ambush exercise from their list. Fuka was the first one in the house and said, "Alright, everyone to their rooms and change. Remember to use the wash rag and water buckets you were supposed to set up before we left to get the dirt down to a manageable level. We'll start cycling showers in after dinner. Naruto, it's your turn to cook tonight and it had better be something besides ramen."

"Hey! It's not like I fix ramen ever time it's my turn to cook!" Naruto yelled out in annoyance as he put his shoes on the rack.

Kiba smirked and added his two ryo to the conversation. "No, you just cook it every other time it's your turn to cook Naruto. I'll grant you that you'll cook different varieties of ramen. But, ramen is still ramen. Do you even know how to cook anything besides ramen?"

Naruto quickly fired back at Kiba, "Yes I know how to cook other dishes. Ramen may be my favorite meal, but even I don't want it all the time since variety is important. I serve it a lot when I need to cook for the team because it's relatively quick to make. If you have the right recipe and don't use instant ramen it can also be fairly healthy."

Sakura decided to get in on the fun and chimed in. "I agree with you Kiba that it is kind of repetitive that Naruto defaults to ramen for meals. However, he can at least cook dinner. You on the other hand turn a perfectly good potential meal into charcoal." The smile on Sakura's face grew bigger as she one upped both of her teammates.

Kiba let out a groan and muttered as he headed up the stairs, "One time. You singe the yakitori one damn time and suddenly you can't cook if your life depends on it."

Naruto followed Kiba up the stairs and paused midway up to glance behind him. He saw Sakura holding up her right hand in a victory sign. She quickly spotted that Naruto had seen her and put her hand down with a faint blush on her face. It was always amusing for Naruto to watch Sakura get excited over something and then get embarrassed once she realized that she was showing how excited she was. Why that was so amusing for him the young man couldn't figure out. Perhaps it had to do with some parental memories he had gone over? It didn't really matter at the end of the day and was something to try and solve another day. Just like that strange feeling he still got every time Sakura and his skin touched that he still hadn't figured out.

The blond ninja started to strip off of his clothes as soon as he reached his room and closed the door. Naruto put his muddy clothes in a plastic bag to be washed later and then walked over to the nightstand which had a large plastic box filled with water and a face towel lying on top. He grabbed the face towel, popped off the lid of the box, and proceeded to give himself a sponge bath. After a couple of minutes, Naruto was clean enough to walk around the house and use all of the amenities in it. Naruto put the now dirty face towel in the box, capped up the box, and quickly dressed in some clean clothes.

Now dressed, Naruto left his room and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He opened up the refrigerator to look at what was available. He found when he saw that there wasn't any leftover rice like he was expecting. Fuka or Sakura probably had the midnight munchies since Kiba usually didn't have midnight snacks. The guys on Team 10 preferred to just have big meals instead of sneaking in the carbs through snacks. Naruto saw half a head of cabbage, a few vegetables, and some thin cuts of beef. These items gave Naruto and idea for dinner so he grabbed them and the soy sauce out of the refrigerator. He grabbed a pot to cook some noodles and also grabbed a skillet while the water was coming to a boil.

The kitchen was soon filled with the smell of sizzling beef and veggies on a butter and soy covered skillet. Akamaru quickly followed his nose into the kitchen and sat down next to Naruto. The puppy looked up at the blond ninja and gave a cheerful bark as he started to wag his tail. Naruto looked down at the puppy and shook his head. "No way Akamaru, Kiba's got you on a strict diet to make sure you grow up healthy and I'm not about to get you in trouble with your partner."

Akamaru let out a whine and tried his best to look pathetic. This tactic had usually worked on Sakura and got Fuka a fair amount of time. That beef smelt so delicious to the ninja dog and he was bound and determined to have some of it. Naruto looked down at Akamaru and shook his head. "You're not getting any of this from me buddy. The only way you're getting some of this is if Kiba gives you some and I don't think that's going to happen." Akamaru then wandered off to try and find an easier mark to get some good food.

* * *

Lord Hitsugaya sat with Team 10 in the same conference room he had met with them just over 2 weeks ago. The commander looked over the team's reports on the various training exercises with approval. He had to give credit where credit was due. Team 10 might be a green genin team, but they were a competent team. The reports he had been given showed almost half a dozen points in each exercise the team did that a fully trained army force could have used to turn the tables on the ninjas. One of the later exercises was even marked as a victory for his troops. However, that was because of pure dumb luck and Hitsugaya personally considered that to be another failure for his men. Luck may be a part of any battle. But, if you need to rely on luck to win then you've already failed in your planning and training.

The commander looked at Fuka and said, "Your team has completed its mission Jonin Asakawa. The reports I have received have been most informative for the training of my new ashigaru. You have me complements on how well trained your team is for new genin. Their results in the assigned exercises speak for themselves."

Fuka bowed her head slightly and said, "You honor my team and me with your words Lord Hitsugaya." It was always interesting accepting complements from samurai on one's abilities as a shinobi. This was especially so given that Hitsugaya was complementing Team 10 for doing better than his own forces. Sakura and Kiba both took mental notes of how Fuka accepted the complement without potentially causing a problem.

Lord Hitsugaya then said, "A notice of this will be sent to 3rd Corps Command and to Konoha. Payment for the mission will be issued by Command upon the receiving my notice. I wish you and your team a safe travel back to Konoha. Unfortunately, I have many other tasks today and so I must end our meeting now."

Both Fuka and Lord Hitsugaya stood up and bowed to each other. Lord Hitsugaya then opened the door and stepped aside so that Fuka could leave. The genins in the room quietly got up and followed their sensei and commander out of the briefing room. Two ashigaru joined the team as soon as they left the meeting room and escorted the shinobi to the front exit. They may have been part of the Land of Fire's military, but that didn't mean they had unfettered access to the regiment's command. Both guards gave the shinobi wary looks as the quartet had earned frightening reputation among the people in the base over the past two weeks. Their mission was supposedly over, but no ashigaru was going to breathe easily until the shinobis had left the base.

Team 10 had to sign out of headquarters once they got to the front exit. The team was quickly signed out and left headquarters for the commissary. They stopped there for a few minutes to pick up some travel snacks for the road. Fuka bought all of the team's snacks so they could get out of the commissary quicker. She did keep the receipt so that her students could pay her back later.

Once everyone had their travel snacks, Team 10 headed for one of the base's guard stations at the gate. They didn't need to stop at the house they had been staying at since all of their things were already packed away in scrolls. Fuka had Kiba sign the team out of the base since the group would need to practice such things. It didn't take long for Kiba to sign out the team even if he was a little unsure about everything. The team then started to run back to Konoha at a reasonable traveling pace for a group of shinobi.

The army base soon disappeared from the view of Team 10 and they left the road for the trees near the roads. A smile erupted on Fuka's face once she was sure there was no way for anyone from the base to see her team. "Well done you three. You've successfully completed your first C-rank mission. Furthermore, you upheld Konoha and the Shinobi Forces' honor in your interactions with the Army."

Grins erupted on all of the genins' faces when they heard that news. Kiba and Sakura both let out small cheers of excitement over having completed a C-rank mission. Naruto's reaction was more subdued thanks to his inherited members, but he was still thrilled. This wasn't the memory of some distant relative completing a mission. This was him completing his first real mission. The thrill and sense of accomplishment was all his. Naruto didn't doubt that one day his descendants would probably relive this memory and he hoped that they could enjoy this moment just as much as he did.

* * *

Author's Note: sorry everyone for how long it took to get this chapter out. Things were rather crazy for me in real life.


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